A reflection on how my background in education and yoga shaped the way I teach—and why translating that kind of human-centered connection through a screen still feels foreign, messy, and (apparently) necessary.
How can I show up online in a way that still honors the humanity of teaching?
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to show up as a yoga teacher in the online space—not the kind wearing the new drop from ALO that you scroll past in a polished Instagram reel, but the kind who makes you feel seen the moment you step into the room.
And strangely enough, that question keeps taking me all the way back to my early years as a middle and high school teacher—back when yoga wasn’t my career but the thing that kept me grounded while working with teenagers and juggling grad school.
When I left undgrad and stepped into my first classroom, I believed teaching meant one thing:
I had information. My students needed information. My job was to deliver it.
Simple, right?
Except… it wasn’t.
The longer I taught—and especially during my graduate studies—the more I realized how grossly wrong I was. Teaching wasn’t about me at all. It wasn’t about how much I knew, how eloquently I could explain a concept, or how creative my lesson plan was.
Real education—meaningful education—is about the student.
It’s about what they bring into the room:
their lived experiences, their strengths, their hesitations, their curiosities, and even their misconceptions.
Students engage more deeply when learning starts with what they already know, not what they don’t. My job wasn’t to point out gaps—it was to connect with their starting point, understand their unique lens, and guide them forward from there.
That was the moment teaching finally clicked.
Classroom behavior improved. Grades rose. Students lingered after the bell or spent lunch in my room—not because I was the “fun teacher,” but because they felt supported.
And years later, that same perspective became the backbone of how I teach yoga.
Teaching finally clicked for me when I stopped trying to deliver information and started connecting with people. That shift changed my classroom—and years later, it became the backbone of how I teach yoga. My YTT isn’t about memorizing cues. It’s about learning how to truly see your students and teach from that place.
When someone walks into a yoga class, they’re not an empty vessel waiting to be filled with alignment cues, philosophy, or performance-driven shapes. They’re a whole human with strengths, patterns, and ways of moving, breathing, and experiencing that belong uniquely to them.
My job isn’t to correct weakness.
My job is to keep them safe, create an experience, and highlight their strengths—sometimes even before they see them themselves.
Yoga is relational.
It’s responsive.
It’s a dance between teacher and student, moment by moment.
Yoga is presence, pacing, and the subtle support that happens long before any posture ever looks “right.”
And here’s where things get tricky for me in 2025:
none of that—the connection, the humanity, the responsiveness—fits neatly into an online “brand.”
Teaching in person is a living, breathing conversation.
Teaching online often feels like shouting into a void.
But the online world has become the first doorway people walk through before they ever step inside a studio—and especially before joining an online yoga teacher training. If the people who would feel genuinely at home in my classes or my training are going to find me, I have to be willing to be visible.
That’s the hard part.
Because I don’t want to show up as a performer or a perfectly curated persona. I want to show up as the teacher I actually am—one who teaches with people, not at them.
So I’m learning to let myself be seen a little more online… in a way that doesn’t chase attention and doesn’t mold me into something trend-friendly. My intention is simple:
to create connection with the students who are already looking for exactly what I offer.
In the end, it’s not about the teacher’s ego.
It’s about the space we create for others—even digitally.
What draws YOU to a teacher online?
Online Hybrid YTT.
In my Online Hybrid 200-Hour Teacher Training, I bring both sides of my background—my Master’s in Education and 10 years of teaching yoga—to create a program built on responsiveness, clarity, and real support. It’s not about perfection. It’s about learning to teach with confidence, compassion, and presence.