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Do you ever feel like you’re not a "real" yoga teacher? In this episode of Cozy Yoga Life, we dive into the real-life struggles yoga teachers face when it comes to imposter syndrome. Why do so many yoga teachers experience it, how to overcome self-doubt, and ways to build confidence in your teaching practice.
You're listening to Cozy Yoga Life the podcast for yoga teachers who crave more from their practice and lives. I'm Shannon Caldwell, and I'll be your guide on this journey of simplicity, self care and self discovery. So let's cozy up, unwind, and dive into today's episode. If you've ever thought, who am I to teach yoga? This podcast episode is for you. Welcome back Cozy Crew, where we continue our discussion on the real life struggles of yoga teachers. And in this episode, we're going to talk about imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is just a fancy term for self doubt. And whether you're a new teacher or seasoned, we all deal, now and again, with imposter syndrome. To start us off, I thought it would be fun to share with you a couple of official sounding definitions. The first one that I want to share with you is, a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud despite your experience or qualifications. Even web MD has an article on imposter syndrome and they define it as when you doubt your own skills and successes, you feel you're not as talented or worthy as others believe and you're scared that one day people will realize that. What are some common signs for imposter syndrome? I think the big one is just that general sense that you're not good enough. If you've ever done any snooping on my websites you'll see that I address that very common barrier that people self-impose is being not good enough. And there are a lot of"enoughs" that fall under that umbrella of not good enough. Some examples of that are not being flexible enough, not being tall enough, not being skinny enough. Not being young enough, not being the right demographic. We have a picture in our head of what a yoga teacher might look like. And If our internal image doesn't match that external image, this can bring up a lot of not feeling enough. Another common sign is doubting yourself or being critical of yourself even after you've received positive feedback. And a great example of this is when individuals would go through yoga teacher training with me, they needed to do a teach back to their peers. While they were doing their teach-back, I would be in the corner filling out an evaluation form If I have 10 things on there, nine of them are positive and one they might consider as a critique to their teaching, they focus in on that critique. They see that as a lack, rather than looking at and accepting the 90% positive feedback that they received. The next two signs I want to talk about, they're two sides of the same coin. When you don't feel like you're good enough, you may tend to procrastinate. Let's say there's a special holiday that's coming up, and you want to create a really special class around that. But you're not feeling like you're good enough to put that class together. So you put it off and then you wait until the very last minute and you throw something together. And then it becomes this self fulfilling prophecy. Well, I'm not good enough,.I waited till the last minute and I just threw this together, so it's probably not going to be any good. Now let's flip that coin over and look at the opposite side. You're overcompensating. If you don't feel like you're good enough, then you put in more time and more effort. You have that special holiday class coming up and every day for a couple of hours between now and that class, you're working on that sequence. You're tweaking it. You put so much into that because you don't want anybody to perceive you as lacking. Imposter syndrome isn't limited to yoga teachers although for some reason we do seem to be highly prone to that sense of not feeling good enough. Why is that? I think there are three really good reasons for this. The first one is that there is this high level of expectation put on yoga teachers. We dedicate ourselves. We are always looking to learn. We're always looking to get the next best certification. And not only do we expect that of ourselves, but the participants can expect that of us as well. The second reason that it can really impact the yoga teachers is because of the influence of social media. Human nature: we are constantly comparing our blooper reels or our growth reels to someone else's success reels. So when you're comparing yourself to another teacher who has maybe a beautiful aesthetic or they're able to do gymnastics quality postures. If you're gauging your abilities and talents based on what you see in social media, that is not a fair playing field. And the third reason is because no two yoga teachers are alike. You're bringing your experience, your background, your talents. All of that contributes to the type of yoga teacher that you're going to be. Not only are no two yoga teachers exactly alike, no two yoga teacher training backgrounds are alike. If you're providing yoga teacher training, you have a wide set of standards in which to create your yoga teacher training program. And you're going to focus on the skills and abilities and interests that you naturally have. That's what you're going to repeat in your yoga teacher training program. So we have this wide range. This diverse population of yoga teachers. If you went through yoga teacher training A and another person went through B and your comparing yourself to B thinking well, she does it differently, so that must be better. Again, they're not a fair comparison. One of the non yoga people that I follow on social media is Pat Flynn and he is a big name in the podcast world. He actually posts for free on his website step-by-step instructions for starting your own podcast. That's how I actually started Cozy Yoga Life is through his instructions. I get his emails weekly and the one that I've received last week, I thought that the universe was really working its synchronicity pretty hard because he also talked about imposter syndrome. He says,"from my experience in helping others, this is the number one reason entrepreneurs struggle. On the surface, it seems to be because you don't believe in yourself. But deep down it's because your barometer for success is based on someone else, someone on a different path with different experiences and skills. Who isn't you." He continues,"to combat imposter syndrome, I encourage you to shift your focus inward. And start comparing yourself only to your past selves rather than others. Measure your progress today against your yesterday, your last week, and your last month." I think he brings up a great point. Because if you look at all of the different ways that we have self-doubts. Or that we don't feel good enough. It's just like he said, it's usually because we're comparing ourselves to another teacher or our yoga mentor or the other individuals who are in our yoga teacher training with us or someone who is five steps ahead us. Having conducted yoga teacher training for the last 20 years, I've had a lot of conversations with potential yoga teachers. Either on the phone, through email, or meeting up at a coffee shop. The potential teachers have all of these questions about yoga teacher training. But when we actually sit down and talk, the questions aren't really about the structure of teacher training. Or about this schedule or the cost. The questions always are about themselves. Whether or not I believe that whatever background they have would make them qualified to teach. The number one question that they ask is can I be a yoga teacher if I can't do all of the postures. That's when I get to bust one of the very first yoga myths. Absolutely, if you can't do all of the yoga postures, you can still teach yoga. The rest of their questions tend to revolve around other ways that they perceive that they might be lacking a skill or something that they would need to be a yoga teacher. And then I get to bust myths two, three and four, or however many that they are asking about. And once those concerns, their own internal self doubt or imposter syndrome that they're dealing with, once I can assure them, they usually jump right on into yoga teacher training. How can you overcome imposter syndrome? First thing is to write down what Pat Flynn said. Cut it out and post it where you can look at it every day. Are you feeling this self doubt because it's a confidence issue or is it a comparison issue? So mindset work can be really important when we're wanting to overcome imposter syndrome. If you're into affirmations, you can practice repeating things like I am enough. My experience matters. And I am here to be of service. Focusing on that last one, being a service. If you can remember that when you step on to the studio floor to teach your yoga class, you are there to guide the participants and it's not about being perfect. I always advise teachers to avoid trying to be perfect. After teaching yoga classes for almost 25 years, I have yet to teach a perfect class. I always flub something up, trip over my words, for for get a side, skip a sequence, get ants in my pants, literally. I've never have taught a perfect class. I like imperfect teachers because imperfect teachers model to their participants that they don't have to be perfect 24/7 either. The next tip that I have is a reframe. I come from a corporate training and development background, and we had an adage or a mantra that says, sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. There's really no such thing as a failure. We learn more when we have a perceived failure, than when we have a success. So use that reframe to help you. And the last piece for overcoming imposter syndrome is to find your community. Whether it's a yoga community or a non yoga community. It's just so helpful to have those other individuals to connect with, a reminder that you are not an island and you do not live in isolation. It's too common when we're having these moments of self doubt to feel like I am the only one who is experiencing this self-doubt. But when you're a part of the community, you have these other people to go to and say, I am feeling doubt. I feel like a fraud. And that community can be there to listen to you and support you. and also probably say, well, I feel like that sometimes too. You're not alone. Let me mention one more thing before we wrap up today's episode. If imposter syndrome is something that you struggle with, it's not all bad news. I came across an article in inc.com and they looked at a research study published in the Academy of Management Journal. According to this study people who struggle with imposter syndrome tend to have better interpersonal skills. And the reason for that is when people experience imposter syndrome, feeling that people believe you're smarter, more skilled, more experienced or more somethings then you think you are. They instinctively try to shift the attention to the people around them. After 25 years in this incredible industry, I too deal with imposter syndrome. Every new challenge that I undertake, I think to myself for a moment. Who am I to start a podcast? Who is going to want to listen to what I have to say? Or who is going to read a book that I wrote? Who am I to write a book about yoga and decluttering? And in those moment, I have to remind myself that my skills and abilities and talent are worthy and that others would benefit and learn and grow from what I have to share. I encourage you to do the same. What new challenge are you avoiding because you're afraid you're not good enough. That you're too old, or too fat, or too whatever, to undertake it. When you have those moments of self doubt, pause, take a deep breath, then reflect on everything that you bring to the table. And I bet that it's a lot more than what you give yourself credit for. That wraps another soul nourishing episode of Cozy Yoga Life. As always, thank you for letting me be a part of your yoga journey. If you enjoyed today's authentic conversation, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Until next time, stay cozy, take care of yourself, and keep it real.
