I used to think teaching yin and restorative yoga were niche skills—nice to have if you wanted to teach those specific classes, but not essential to your development as a yoga teacher. I was completely wrong.

After 20+ years of teaching and training teachers, I've discovered that learning to teach yin and restorative might be the most transformative thing you can do for your teaching—no matter what style you teach. These aren't specialty skills for specialty classes. They're foundational skills that make you better at teaching everything.

In this episode, we explore eight ways that yin and restorative training transforms your teaching: understanding what's happening at the tissue level, developing functional anatomy knowledge, getting radically comfortable with silence, mastering the deluxe savasana, developing precision in your language, learning to read the room at a deeper level, working with props as tools (not theater), and developing patience with your students and yourself.

If you're ready to become the teacher who creates transcendent savasanas, who knows exactly when to speak and when to stay silent, who can read a room at the level of the nervous system—join me in the Fundamentals of Teaching Yin Yoga or Fundamentals of Teaching Restorative Yoga. Both courses are self-paced with video, audio, and reading formats, complete pose libraries, done-for-you lesson plans, and 20 CEUs. Visit comfortzoneyoga.com/yin or comfortzoneyoga.com/restorative to learn more.

Want to become (almost) everyone's favorite yoga teacher? Get in the Zone at Comfort Zone Yoga, my virtual studio focused on teacher development. I have a ton of Sage advice in there for you—let's chat there!

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And come explore my mentorship program, my Yoga Class Prep Station membership, continuing education workshops and 300/500-hour teacher training programs, and my many books for yoga teachers. It's all at ...