The teaching has lost its way

There was a time when people spoke about yoga as something that changed their lives. They spoke of liberation, inner alignment, freedom, transformation, and even transmutation..

That has changed.

When? It’s hard to say.

… definitely though, around the time that “Athleisure” became its own distinct style of dressing

… and probably around the period where every major shopping centre “needed” hipster yoga studio in its retail mix.

.. the stories we hear now are different.

It’s about the sweat. The calories. The weight loss. The perfect handstand. The advanced yoga posture they pulled off which increased their Instagram followers tenfold. Touching your toes. Looking good in leggings. Looking good without leggings. Naked yoga. Beer Yoga. (Kill me now).

Yoga has become something you do to improve your body, rather than something that might fundamentally change your life.

The old stories were different.

They spoke about transformation.

They talked about becoming stronger, calmer, more resilient, more self-aware. They talked about how yoga changed their relationship with their bodies, their minds, and, sometimes, their lives.

You hear less of that today.

Perhaps that is because yoga has become a victim of its own success. In the modern proliferation of yoga studios, teacher trainings, boutique classes and social-media personalities, yoga has become more accessible than ever. But accessibility is not necessarily the same as quality.

The uncomfortable question is this:

Are today’s yoga teacher training programmes actually preparing people to teach yoga?

In many cases, the answer is: not adequately.

The performance of teaching

Many teacher training programmes place considerable emphasis on class choreography, sequencing and verbal cueing.

These are important skills. A teacher needs to know how to structure a class and communicate clearly. But they are only part of the job.

The danger is that teacher training can become focused on the performance of teaching rather than the practice of teaching.

A trainee learns how to stand at the front of a room, demonstrate a sequence, deliver cues and move a group of people from one posture to another.

But teaching yoga is not fundamentally about performing in front of a class.

It is about observing.

It is about understanding.

It is about adapting.

And it is about knowing when the person in front of you needs something different from the person beside them.

A yoga teacher is not simply a person who knows how to perform a series of postures. A teacher should be able to help another person acquire those postures safely and meaningfully, while using movement and breath to support a healthier body and a calmer mind.

That requires a fundamentally different skill set.

The body is not one-size-fits-all

One of the greatest shortcomings in many modern teacher trainings is insufficient attention to the individual body.

I developed the idea of wanting to become a yoga teacher someday. I lacked flexibility, but I used my strength from other areas to compensate and do the poses the teacher embodied in class. However, I didn’t realise that I was practicing with a certain type of postural imbalance, which resulted in some back pain..

As yoga practitioner in Singapore, one who has discovered the beauty of the Mysore method, practicing at Mysore Breathing Room at with Sita is almost a default and natural choice. There are other teachers around, but the manner of how Sita lovingly holds the space, whilst balancing the need to let go just enough for me to deepen my practice safely, is a rare combination in a Mysore teacher.

What yoga does for me … by Elise Nguyen

Mysore Breathing Room - Teacher Diary

Before the room fully wakes,

there is breath

soft, unseen,

like a tide remembering the moon.

Why I would choose Sita to be my teacher-trainer — Ashtanga Yoga Singapore Mysore Breathing Room

For those seeking depth, lineage, and authentic teaching, Sita Chia, founder of Mysore Breathing Room, represents one of the most experienced and widely respected yoga teachers in Singapore today. With decades of practice, international teaching experience, and dozens of teacher trainings conducted across Asia, her work continues to shape the next generation of yoga practitioners and teachers.