Teaching yoga is more than just guiding practitioners through poses. By incorporating socially important, timely, and relevant topics into your yoga classes and businesses, you’ll be able to make your offerings more accessible, applicable, and valuable for your students and yoga community. Here are 7 considerations to get you started.

1. Yoga and Technology

Since the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020, technology has steadily become an increasingly important part of yoga teaching and practice, from online classes to apps that track progress. As a yoga teacher, you can utilize technology in various forms—think sharing videos, music playlists, or utilizing scheduling applications—to make your classes more engaging and effective while reaching more students.

2. Yoga for Mental Health

Mental health is just as important as physical health, and yoga can be a great tool for reinforcing this concept, managing stress, and improving mental health. As a yoga teacher, you can help support students’ mental and emotional wellbeing by educating them on topics such as mindfulness and self-care.

3. Yoga for Athletes

Yoga is an incredible practice for athletes who are interested in improving performance and reducing injury. As a teacher, you can create classes that are tailored to athletes, such as classes that focus on joint mobility, balance, recovery, and strength—effectively expanding your services and opening your offerings to new students or clients.

4. Neurodiversity and Inclusion

Neurodiversity, the concept of recognizing and embracing all forms of neurological variation, is a valuable concept to incorporate into your yoga classes. As a yoga teacher, you can create classes that are inclusive of all types of neurodiversity, creating a sensory-friendly space for students who may experience sensory processing disorders.

5. Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Choices

As awareness of the environmental impact of our lifestyle choices grows, sustainable yoga practices are an important part of being a yoga professional. You can create classes that utilize sustainable practices, such as ethically sourced and eco-friendly yoga mats and yoga clothing.

6. Yoga for Social Justice

Yoga is a practice for all and embodies philosophies rooted in social justice, such as ahimsa (non-violence). That said, the yoga community is not immune to harmful discrimination and inequities. Being proactive about educating yourself on social justice issues both in and outside of yoga, such as racial justice, gender equality, and economic justice will not only help you, your students, and communities, but it will also leverage yoga as a tool to better the world.

7. Yoga and the Outdoors

As people become more aware of the importance of unplugging and connecting with nature, yoga and the outdoors is a great theme to explore in your classes. As a yoga teacher, you can create classes that explore yoga in nature and provide outdoor experiences, including additional activities such as hiking, camping, and beach yoga. If getting outside is not an option, even simply opening a window, utilizing essential oils derived from plants, herbs, and flowers, or playing nature playlists on your phone can simulate nature’s benefits!  

Looking for more ideas? Check out our 2022 E-Book featuring 12 more themes here.