Updated October 27, 2026 05:16PM
Nicole Fabian-Weber is a writer and 500-hour certified yoga teacher who is inspired by the subtle yet powerful habits that make yoga instructors more effective. She currently teaches at Home Power Yoga in Cranford, New Jersey.
My closest friends don’t take my yoga classes. Not because they don’t like my teaching or me (or at least, that’s what they tell me). It’s because of Mindy. For the past decade, twice weekly, my friends have cleared their busy schedules to take a 75-minute vinyasa class with their most beloved yoga teacher, Mindy.
I don’t take it personally. Whether someone has been practicing yoga for a few months or 20 years, they likely have a favorite teacher. As a yoga teacher, I have my own Mindys for whom I have no problem rearranging my schedule or dragging myself out of bed before sunrise so I can take their class.
But what exactly is it about our favorite yoga teachers that gives that can’t-put-your-finger-on-it magic to their classes?
When I asked my friends, at first they were vague in explaining Mindy’s allure as a teacher. “She’s got good energy,” they said. “She’s calm and grounding.” But then one of my friends got right to the heart of it. “I wind up doing things in her class I didn’t know I was capable of—without even realizing it,” she explained. That resonated for me, because my favorite yoga teachers have the same subtle yet powerful impact.
The more I investigated the Mindys in my orbit, the more I realized that they all make similar choices when it comes to their presence, style, approach, and demeanor. And they’re the exact habits that I started to incorporate into my own teaching so that my students feel empowered and inspired when they get on their mats.
6 Things My Favorite Yoga Teachers Always Do
These are some of the habits that my favorite yoga teachers do that make all the difference in class. Whenever I’m in need of inspiration or find myself in a teaching rut, these are the tools I return to again and again.
1. They Hold Space—A Lot of It
Silence can feel awkward—including for teachers who are just starting out. So it can be difficult to resist the urge to fill the space with cues, advice, and reminders to breathe.
Yet my favorite yoga teachers seem comfortable with periods of silence in class. It’s a skill to hold space in a room by intentionally and wordlessly letting moments linger so that students can sit with sensations, embrace the present moment, and turn inward to find what they need. These teachers can still command the space with their presence, but in a quiet, supportive, “I’m here for you” kind of way.
2. They Match the Energy (Instead of Challenge It)
The teachers I never snooze on are the ones who meet students where they are during early morning classes—exhausted. Instead of willing us awake with pep, their energy is calm and steady, and without fail, they motivate us to ignite our own inner fire. It’s kind of like waking up with tea versus an energy drink. It’s a slower, more sustainable build—and, in my opinion, it’s way more satisfying.
Similarly, during evening classes, students are often coming straight from work or ducking out of a busy house. The teachers that I find the most effective recognize and honor when students might be carrying a lot onto the mat. Perhaps they gauge the level of intensity during class, or share a few extra moments of quiet at the outset for everyone to land.
3. They Practice What They Teach
During my 300-hour training, we were tasked with filming ourselves teaching in order to observe what was working and what wasn’t. When I watched the playback of my class, which was themed around equanimity or calm in the face of change, I was somewhat aghast to see that I paced around the room the entire time in an almost chaotic manner. Calm? Hardly. Turbulent? Yes.
On the other hand, in one of the best yoga classes I’ve ever taken, the teacher spoke about ahimsa (non-violence). The kind tone and moderate volume of her voice, along with how peacefully she moved throughout the space, encapsulated the message perfectly.
4. They Know That Less Is More
The teachers I keep coming back to generally don’t pad their instructions with extra verbiage—they’re comfortable getting their point across with, say, five words instead of 20. By doing this, they’re not only trusting students to take or leave what they’re saying, they’re leaving their cues undiluted so they can land with more impact.
5. They Lead With Authenticity
Having a commanding presence while being completely authentic about their own humanity and messiness is a balance many experienced teachers manage to strike. When they inevitably mix up right and left or skip a side, they acknowledge it, maybe even laugh it off, and move on.
A quick self-aware joke or well-timed laugh can be exactly the reminder everyone needs not to take themselves too seriously and to recall that the main goal, in all ways, is to unite.
6. They’re Along for the Ride
When I take class with any of my favorite teachers, I and the other students are the main characters. The teachers facilitate the experience, but they don’t claim it as their own. My go-to teachers read the room to try to understand what might be the most helpful tool they can offer—perhaps giving guidance, sharing an anecdote, or stepping back and letting the practice speak for itself. They’re also familiar with straying from their planned sequence if the room is calling for something different.
Put another way, my favorite yoga teachers know that often the most powerful approach is to offer a bit of guidance and then let students take it from there.
