5 Ways Yoga Teachers Can Handle Them

There’s something about yoga spaces that makes them a magnet for uncomfortable, even embarrassing, situations. Students are asked to step outside their usual routines, and challenge themselves differently than they do in everyday life. Not surprisingly, unpredictability results. Whether it’s what students do, say, or wear, or the gaffes yoga teachers make ourselves, one thing that’s for sure is that all yoga teachers will, at some point, have to figure out what to do in an awkward moment.

It’s all too easy to freeze in the face of discomfort, whether yours or someone else’s. But sticky scenarios feel less overwhelming when you have considered their possibility in advance, and a few possible responses in mind.

5 Ways Yoga Teachers Can Respond to Awkward Moments

Ultimately, how you handle an awkward situation in class is up to you. Below, some inspiration from other teachers for what to do during uncomfortable moments.

1. Pretend Nothing Happened 

In the right scenario, the time-tested strategy of looking the other way can be easiest on everyone present, especially when the stakes are low.

Yoga teacher, trainer, and writer Amber Burke recalled one such scenario. “A man once came to my yoga class wearing a button-down, jeans, and a belt. I checked in with him after class, and he said he had trouble getting into some of the poses because of his jeans, and he didn’t know what else to wear,” says Burke. So she responded by telling him, “Whatever is comfortable and stretchy.”  The next week, he came to class in his pajamas—a whole plaid PJ-set, says Burke. She held her tongue, not wanting embarrassment to dissuade him from attending class again, and fortunately it worked out fine.

“I worried that this would earn him some laughs, but the other students were very accepting—they brought him blocks and so on, and one woman told him she liked his pajamas. “He wore those to every yoga class for the months that I taught there,” she says.

I recently took this course of action when I could see some awkwardly situated holes in a student’s tights. They were visible from my vantage point, but not to anyone else in the room. Instead of whispering a heads-up to this student during class, I waited until afterward, knowing that she would relax and benefit more from her practice without her clothing being top of mind. I reassured her that the holes wouldn’t have been obvious to others in the room, but thought she might want to know regardless.

Ignorance can be bliss. Consider this course of action, or inaction, when pointing out a situation that could trigger the very embarrassment you’re trying to minimize.

2. Respond Indirectly

It’s not always responsible to pretend nothing happened. Some issues require action, whether it’s to make the class experience more comfortable for the person concerned or for others.

Probably everyone has been to a class where there are unwanted odors. Sweating and passing gas are normal bodily functions, but not the most welcome ones in an enclosed space where the aim is to breathe deeply. If you’re a teacher in this room, ignoring the situation doesn’t benefit anyone, but neither does explicitly calling it out. The resolution can be as simple as saying “I’m going to open a couple of windows; it feels a bit stuffy in here today.”

Yoga Journal Editor in Chief Renee Marie Schettler shared a different kind of scenario that required a delicate touch. “I was teaching a packed class filled with mostly regulars when a gentleman I hadn’t seen before walked in. His gait suggested there were some physical challenges he was navigating,” says Schettler. “But I wanted to respect his decision to show up for a class of his choice, just like anyone else. So when he didn’t approach me to explain, I didn’t approach him,” says Schettler.

Then Schettler noticed that the student almost fell during a transition. “We made eye contact, and he gave an ever-so-slight nod and grin, which I took to mean that he was good,” says Schettler. She debated approaching his mat to confirm that he was fine, although she didn’t want to draw more attention to him than necessary—despite other students throwing her what seemed like “questioning” or “disapproving” looks.”  She quietly adjusted the sequence on the other side to avoid that same transition. “He came back to class again,” she says.

Sometimes less is more. When the issue is particularly sensitive to someone in class, it might be best to resolve the situation without addressing it head-on.

3. Respond Directly 

In contrast, the discomfort felt in some situations only increases when left unaddressed. Instead of being resolved in a word or two, they become the elephant in the room.

I once arrived to teach a regular private client and found him in his boxers. “I didn’t have time to run upstairs for my gym shorts, and I knew you wouldn’t mind,” he said. I did mind, but I didn’t want to make the interaction more awkward for either of us, so I responded by saying, “Actually I need to use the bathroom if you don’t mind, so you have time to grab your shorts before we get started.”Fortunately he was happy to do so, and as a result we both had a much more comfortable hour together.

Burke found herself in an equally uncomfortable scenario, this time when meeting a new private yoga student. “I walked into his large house, and was stunned to see that in the living room, where he had anticipated that we would be practicing, dozens of animal heads were mounted on the wall,” she says. Although he was a safari hunter, Burke is a vegetarian and an animal lover and was, understandably, unsettled. “I told him that the animal heads made me uncomfortable, and he said we could practice upstairs in the sunroom if I preferred,” she says. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but a compromise that allowed them to work together.

Yoga teacher, strength coach, and studio owner Lizette Pompa  experienced an awkward moment in a group class that required action from her. “A female student took her top off mid-class,” says Pompa. “She’d noticed four male students practicing in just shorts and wanted to make a point about the double standard, so she matched them.” Pompa went over to her mat and quietly requested she put her top back on. The student said she would—only if the men wore shirts, too. Pompa said she would address the issue, so the student put her shirt back on. Of course, the rest of the class noticed what was happening.

Pompa addressed the room, explaining the female student’s concerns, and agreeing that “fair is fair,” she says. “I turned to the two guys and asked if they had t-shirts with them. They didn’t, so I went and grabbed a couple from what we sell in the studio, and we carried on. It was a delicate one to navigate, but everyone was comfortable with the outcome,” explains Pompa.

Some  unexpected situations that arise in yoga are best addressed clearly and immediately, before the discomfort has a chance to grow.

4. Respond With Humor 

Humor is perhaps the ultimate defense against discomfort. As 19th-century preacher Henry Ward Beecher famously said, “A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs; it’s jolted by every pebble on the road.”

Yet since most people don’t like being laughed at, humor is most effective when it’s soft or self-directed. When a student once called out that I was teaching the same side of a flow twice, for example, I responded by saying, “Oh you wanted to do BOTH sides? That costs extra.”

There’s also nothing like in-jokes to create a feeling of community. “I’ll teach one side of a flow and completely blank on a pose or two on the other side. I have a regular student who’s never shy about calling out when I’ve missed something,” says Pompa. “One day I said, half-jokingly, ‘Fredrick is basically my personal assistant,’ and it got a big laugh. Now whenever I lose the thread mid-flow, I just stop and ask ‘Where’s Fredrick?’ Works every time. The class cracks up, and it buys me just enough time to find my place again,” she says.

Humor, used kindly and sparingly, can be the ultimate buffer to the vulnerability that awkward moments create.

5. Normalize It 

Being a human is hard enough without sweating our mistakes, misunderstandings, and missteps. Sometimes the awkward moments that arise in yoga class are powerful opportunities to help us all accept, and even celebrate, our imperfections.

Everyone forgets things, and yoga teachers are no exceptions to that rule. Schettler was taking a class when the teacher forgot what pose came next. “She asked the class out loud and someone shouted it out,” she says. “It made an impression on me because it felt like a team effort—and it seemed like the most normal thing in the world that she would ask!” Sometimes the most powerful lessons teachers share with students are through our example of allowing ourselves to be human and giving ourselves grace as we do so.

Normalizing awkward moments is even more important when the situation is sensitive.  Melissa Oleson is a yoga teacher and doctor of physical therapy who specializes in the pelvic floor. Her classes inevitably include situations in which what might be considered awkward by some are to be expected, including, in her words, “leaking or queefing during class, crying from release, or having to leave three to four times to use the bathroom,” she says. “I’ve handled it a number of different ways, including tying it into class, saying ‘It can happen,’ or ‘It’s natural and our bodies’ signal letting us know something’s up,’ without calling out who it happened to. These things are annoying but happen—we’re not going to let it stress us out more.”

When people come together in yoga, there is inherently potential for vulnerability. But isn’t that part of why we practice? For the shared experience of being imperfectly human. As Schettler mentioned, “As a new teacher, I once asked students before class if there were any injuries I should know about. A guy said, in a very serious way, ‘Only in my soul’. I just nodded and said, that’s why we do yoga.”