Yoga, Yogi, Yogini: What is Considered a Good Yoga Teacher?

When I was training to be a Yoga teacher about 10 years back, I still remembered my training group was a small one, 5 of us in total.

In our training, we were supposed to conduct a class at the end of it as a final evaluation. All of us were busy trying to remember the instructions for each pose at the end of each day training in preparation for the final assessment.

My roomie was from Malaysia, a happy-go-lucky lady but her English was not fantastic, so she found it especially hard to remember the instructions. Even during training, she took longer time than all of us to understand what the teacher was talking about.

So during the final evaluation, her instructions given were ok to understand but not as smooth as you would expect in a commercial yoga class.

The teacher then evaluated all of us at the end of the final assessment.

Much to our surprise, he said that my roomie was the best teacher amongst all of us.

Having walked on this yoga journey for almost a decade, I interchange between the role of a teacher and a student constantly. My instructions changed as I grew, my practice changed as life carried me through different experiences, some heavenly, some worse than hell, some bland as water. But I now truly understand why my roomie was able to carry the Best Teacher Award.

The eloquence in delivery of the instructions, the command of the language, the ability to bend into Instagrammable poses, the yoga outfit, the yoga mat, the studio. They are just icing on the cake - beautiful, good to have but not the most important as a Yoga teacher.

My teacher’s reason for my roomie being the best yoga teacher at that time made the consideration of a good Yoga teacher a classic: