Building Confidence as a Yoga Teacher with Karen Fabian

Did you know confidence as a yoga teacher is a skill you can build? It’s true—confidence isn’t an innate trait; it’s a skill developed over time, through practice, and by addressing the self-limiting beliefs that hold us back. In this episode of Yoga Teacher Confidential with Sage Rountree, I welcome Karen Fabian, an expert in helping yoga teachers identify and overcome the mental barriers that impact their teaching presence. If you’ve ever struggled with imposter syndrome or worried about “getting it right” in front of your students, this conversation offers practical strategies to empower you as a teacher.

What You’ll Learn:

1. Confidence-Building Practices: Karen shares insights into how yoga teachers can cultivate genuine confidence in the classroom, focusing on mindset shifts rather than just memorizing sequences.
2. Recognizing and Addressing Imposter Syndrome: Imposter syndrome is a common experience for yoga teachers, and Karen explains how to recognize when it arises and how to reframe those limiting beliefs.
3. Teaching from What You Know vs. What You’re Told: Teaching authentically from what you know rather than repeating what others have said can significantly boost confidence and resonate better with your students.
4. Simple Techniques to Cultivate Growth: From creating a “signature sequence” to practicing small mindset shifts, Karen offers specific techniques for developing a growth mindset in yoga teaching.

Key Takeaways:

• Confidence is a mindset that you can train through self-reflection, practice, and reframing negative beliefs.
• Mindset affects everything—from how you sequence your classes to how you respond when things don’t go as planned.
• Teach from what you know rather than trying to replicate someone else’s style; this authenticity connects more deeply with students. (Remember: as we covered in S1E2, you’re not Bryan!)
• Reflecting on imposter syndrome and self-doubt can be the first step to transforming these beliefs into sources of strength.

Listen to this episode to develop authentic confidence as a yoga teacher. Karen Fabian brings over 20 years of experience cultivating confidence in the classroom. Her suggestions will help you shed limiting beliefs and teach from a place of authenticity and presence.

Resources:

• Karen’s podcast, Conversations for Yoga Teachers
• Karen’s website, Bare Bones Yoga
• Karen on Instagram: @barebonesyoga
• Sage’s website

Help me reach more yoga teachers like you by following the show and leaving a rating or review on Apple and Spotify!

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Want to become (almost) everyone's favorite yoga teacher? Explore my continuing education workshops and 300/500-hour teacher training programs. It's all at sagerountree.com.

Transcript

Can I tell you something confidence is a skill you can develop, it starts with your mindset. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential. In the show I share the secrets to becoming a great yoga teacher, and confidence is definitely the most important quality you can bring to the classroom. Because when you feel confident, and capable and relaxed in front of the class, your students pick up on the vibe, they start to relax, too.. Today, I am super excited to welcome my first ever guest to the show. She is an expert in helping yoga teachers build confidence by investigating their self-limiting beliefs and helping them shift into a more helpful mindset in service of their students. 

Karen Fabian has been teaching even longer than I have a year or two longer than I have since 2002, I think, Karen and Karen was one of the first certified Baptiste Yoga teachers. She has a wonderful background with a lot of personal [00:01:00] training credentials,

a rehabilitative science credential and corrective exercise credential, all of which make us really simpatica, uh, as we get into this chat. Karen specializes in helping yoga teachers feel confident in the classroom, especially by giving them the skills they need to feel secure in their understanding of anatomy.

Karen, what would you add to this introduction?

**Karen Fabian:** Well, thank you for having me on the show. And thanks for kind of that lead in. Yeah. I mean, my whole focus over the many, many years that I've been teaching, as well as training yoga teachers is really helping yoga teachers tap into their most authentic way of showing up in their classes. And it would seem to me, easy, like you're yourself walking into the room. What I found though, not only from my own experience, but from

**Sage Rountree:** Okay. Okay. all for being here [00:02:00] today, and I hope to see you again soon. 

**Karen Fabian:** I can remember when I started teaching, uh, in 2002, we didn't even have imposter syndrome as a thing. We probably felt it. I know there were many, many scenarios where I walked in the room and I felt insecure, uncomfortable, not expert enough, but we didn't have a label for it.

And now I find It's such a common thing for yoga teachers to say to me, I feel like I have imposter syndrome. So whoever came up with that phrase, it really seemed to be the bandwagon that everybody jumped on saying, yeah, that's how I feel. And what I've done over time is really create a process where [00:03:00] we're not just talking about cueing and sequencing and learning anatomy. We're also talking about, well, what kinds of fears come up when you walk in the room? What's happening when you walk in a room and you really want to just walk around and teach so you can see your students, but you jump onto the yoga mat and you just start doing the practice and something in the back of your head says, this is where I'm safe.

But if I'm walking around, I'm not safe. The eyes are on me and I'm not safe. What I found is there's a big mindset component to teaching yoga and feeling like you're in your dharma. You're loving what you're doing. You're living your life's purpose. So over the past number of years, my focus has really shifted to supporting teachers.

In all those different ways, understanding anatomy, like you said, cuing and sequencing the tactical skills and then also moving past the limiting beliefs they have so that they can walk in the [00:04:00] room and feel empowered and feel like they're teaching in a way nobody else can because nobody else is there. 

**Sage Rountree:** Fantastic. What a beautiful description of what confidence can look like in the classroom and why it's so important. It sounds like you do some pretty deep work with the yoga teachers from a coaching perspective about investigating these deep seated beliefs in the sense of inadequacy. Can you talk a little bit more about what that looks like when you're working with yoga teachers? Okay.

**Karen Fabian:** Um, I mean, my background prior to teaching yoga is in clinical health care. So I've worked as a social worker and rehab counselor in a variety of different healthcare settings. I've always found myself sort of the physical movement, health and wellness arena and the psychosocial arena as well. And so when I started my program, it is a natural way that I have when I [00:05:00] have coaching calls with teachers to ask questions that really give them a safe space to start to share what their fears and concerns and blocks and insecurities. And I'm definitely not doing therapy from a professional scope of practice.

I want to make that crystal clear. in the context of coaching yoga teachers, I asked questions about I mean, it sounds so simple, but how do you feel when you walk in the room? And because those kinds of questions are typically not part of a standard 200, 300 or 500 hour training, but yet the answer to that question is a doorway into what is this person afraid of?

What Do they think could happen if they show up authentically? What are they holding back? What is really their vision of teaching? we get into those conversations, I've found teachers [00:06:00] share stories of, you know, when I walk into the studio to teach a yoga class, I'm brought right back to when I was in high school and we moved to a new community and I felt like I was missing my old friends and I was so anxious in the lunchroom and here I am. I'm a mom. I'm 45 years old and I'm brought right back to that year old part of me when I walk into the studio to teach. I've had a yoga teacher who said to me, My husband for years has called me a wallflower. Every time we go to a party, every time we go out with other people, I'm sort of shy and reserved. And just taken on that persona, even though it doesn't really resonate with me. And I find when I go in to teach, I hear this voice in my head saying, what are you doing standing up here in front of this class? You're a wallflower. And I don't know that I have the strength to [00:07:00] move past that identity that has been sort of to me by my partner. I've had, The experience of being in training with someone who told a story of after she did a practice teaching session from the back of the room and at the end we all said it was curious to us that you were teaching from the back of the room and she broke down in tears and described one of her earliest memories as a kid. Where she dressed herself for school and she excitedly ran down the stairs and said, mom, mom, look what I'm wearing. And her mother said, there's no way you can wear that to school. You look ridiculous. Go back upstairs and change. So from that young age, she developed this hiding compensatory strategy that she used in life. And so. You know, all of these stories illustrate, we bring all of who we are as a person, all of our life experiences, all of our positive beliefs, all of our limiting beliefs, all of our [00:08:00] beliefs about what does a yoga teacher look like, all of our beliefs of what we were told in teacher training, I have to do this, I have to do that. all of that comes with us. And the same for our students, they come in the room, it's not like, They get fairy dust sprinkled on them and they're super flexible and can do anything that you ask them to do. the recognition of that really means that we really want to break through and show up confidently and authentically, we have to sort of these things to the surface and talk about them and see if there is an opportunity for us to break through. Change that narrative and that becomes a lot of what I do on these coaching calls and it's not even the sort of thing. It's not like I go on these calls intending to do this inevitably just through a couple of questions. The person will say a few things and I'll ask a couple [00:09:00] of more questions. And all of a sudden we're in this whole area of them sharing with me.

And because I've done this enough and because I've heard so many of these limiting beliefs, I can give them perspective. And that's really all it is. You know, in kind of wrapping it all up, at least in terms of this point, what I always say to teachers is it's not so much the number of hours that you train that's going to be the source of your confidence. It's more finding your confidence through your willingness to experiment with different things in your classes that sort of run counter to what you think. the situation. So for instance, if I think I need to change my sequence all the time or my students will get bored because that's what somebody told me and my experience of teaching when I change it every Monday is I go in and I don't remember [00:10:00] it and I'm nervous and freaking out and I have to practice with them.

But I so firmly believe that somebody told me. If I'm willing to experiment teaching a similar sequence for a month, which if I teach one class a week, that's just four classes. I'm not saying for the rest of your life. at the end of teaching that fourth class, I feel a little bit more confident and a little bit more competent that I know what I'm doing, that I don't have mind going blank syndrome. Then I've essentially shown that I don't have a fixed mindset. I have a growth mindset. I'm willing. to experiment with something different, almost in service to me, to me disproving a belief I have about myself, which oddly paradoxically is in service to them. Because when I feel better, when I walk in the room, I'm better for them.

It's like the oxygen mask has to come on me first, but so many yoga teachers are wrapped up in this sort of [00:11:00] everything has to be done for the student. So, They show up with their sequence. Somebody pops up and says, Hey, can we focus on a lot of core today? And all of a sudden they're up in their head, like, Oh, now I need to, or a new person shows up and they're completely freaking out, looking at this new person and feeling like the sequence they showed up with now is no longer relevant because of this new person. So all of what we're talking about here has to do with each teacher shoring up their internal resources so that they can be better for the people in their class

**Sage Rountree:** Amazing. Yes, I, I hear that our yoga teaching is just an element, a distillation of our yoga practice and that we all come in with these patterns and habits with samskara, layered on top of, um, of our true nature and a lot of what we are doing in the practice is undoing and quieting, um, those fluctuations of the mind [00:12:00] that tell us this needs to happen, or this needs to happen, or I'm doing it wrong if I and all of these, all of these habits need to be deconstructed and unlearned.

So that we can reveal, you know, the, the inner truth. And when we're teaching from that inner truth, um, and that bliss body gets to shine through to mix a whole bunch of yoga philosophical metaphors here. That's when we are our best selves. And, um, that's when we are in connection and union and yoga. And that's when we can transmit it to our students.

**Karen Fabian:** I mean, everything that you just shared that lives in all of the beautiful teachings of the sutras, right, is at the heart of it. And then I think we're additionally challenged because we live in this modern day culture. So there's that additional pull on top of all of what teachers are told in training and how they perceive those things. And so. Any yoga teacher, you know, you, me, anyone listening to this can relate to Teaching a class and at the end when you're [00:13:00] looking out at everybody in shavasana And you truly know in your heart that you did your best That you were 100 there for them You have this, and you know that you showed up authentically, you have this calmness that is that chitta vritti nirodhaha, right?

You have this calmness in you that is, in my experience of feeling it, it's knowing that it's almost like the universe is just completely in the top of my head. There's like this direct line and I just know 100 percent I'm doing exactly what I was designed to do. Purity of connection, both up and out, is something that, my view, is attained when we strip away these other things. And yes, there's of course a time for academic training, and certainly philosophy as we're talking about, and other aspects, [00:14:00] strategic, cueing, sequencing, and anatomy of course. And Also, stripping away all those excess things that really sort of cloud our ability to show up and just confidently, almost like a three year old, a three year old isn't holding back thinking how is somebody going to judge me? If they want to, you know, have a temper tantrum, they're going to do that. If they want to hug a neighbor, they're going to do that. If they want to run around and, you know, hop on one leg, they're going to do that. And. Obviously we grow older and we have reservations about showing our true nature. And that's really in the teaching of yoga. Uh, I think what we want to do, and in fact it's a wonderful way to distinguish yourself and make true connections with your students when you're really operating from that space of true, authentic nature. 

**Sage Rountree:** Yes, again, the teaching is the practice and we become teachers because we have experienced that. We got so involved in our practice because we've experienced that taste of [00:15:00] Samadhi or that tease, you know, that moment in Shavasana where we're like, this is it for me. And I hear exactly what you're saying and I bet all the listeners do too, that periodically you've set up the conditions correctly

to achieve that bliss as a teacher, like even just as the vessel for the students to be getting there. And that's like met a meta level, a next level up that feels even more powerful and even more like you're really living your Dharma. It's fantastic. If only we could just snap our fingers and make it happen.

**Karen Fabian:** totally. And that's why, you know, when I've been working with teachers one on one in my program over the years, I've really refined it to really try to, and I know it's going to sound kind of weird, but to really try to operationalize to some degree, what are the steps that. are helpful for teachers to experience in service to becoming that that part of them. And what I've found is, yes, there's a place [00:16:00] for 200 hour trainings and 300 and 500. And there's also a place for one on one work with a mentor where you have an opportunity to get into some of the mindset components. And certainly in today's world, I mean, I could name half a dozen podcasts that have, you know, Stanford neuropsychologists and neurologists and all sorts of people who talk about mindset.

I mean, there's so much more in the public science domain about neuroscience and mindset and things that we can do just. To live a healthy and empowered life. And so there's for me, uh, almost an extraction of what are the teachings in that science space that become relevant for yoga teachers in service to them. really working towards being the best person they can be. And I don't mean best person, like doing nice [00:17:00] things for other people. I mean, waking up in the morning and feeling grateful and fulfilled and purpose driven that's A way of being in life that translates into who you are when you walk in the room as a teacher. so lot of what I've done in my program is really come up with, and I know this word sounds like a non sequitur in terms of yoga teaching, but strategies and frameworks are designed to. teachers understand, well, what are different things I can do in the studio, in the classroom, so that I feel this way. And we've already talked about one of them, which is creating a signature sequence and really leaning into that. when we look at it through the lens of neuroscience, there's a level of skill and Malcolm Gladwell talks about it with the 10, 000 hours paradigm where you [00:18:00] become, um, so good at what you're doing that you're not even thinking about what you're doing.

And it's described as this unconscious competence. And we don't really think about

**Sage Rountree:** So,

**Karen Fabian:** to meet the moment, to deal with, and you know this, that one off thing you would have never expected that happened in a class, somebody leaves early, somebody shows up late, somebody, I don't know, there's so many different things that we're just unaware of that's going on.

And if we're so trapped in this mental space of not supposed to be here, I'm not good enough. I don't know my sequence. We have no capacity to deal with those things. So a lot of what I create are these sort of processes and [00:19:00] strategies to help teachers get to this point where they can be unconsciously competent and that allows them to really express themselves and to get to that point we just described where you're sitting there at the end. And. It's different for everybody, but that feeling of did good work, can go home and lay my head down on the pillow and feel like I love what I'm doing. And this is what I was designed to do instead of what I hear a lot, which is I'm driving home and I'm berating myself. How come you messed up your sequence?

How come you forgot this? there's this, you know, especially if the particular person is, type A or grew up in a household where there was a lot of pressure on them to do things perfectly. I've had teachers tell me, you know, this one woman said she grew up in a home where the dad was really, had to be straight A's, had to do it this way.

And she would hear her father's voice at the end of her yoga classes sometimes, like you messed up, you didn't do a good job. And these are [00:20:00] not. You know, clinical situations. These are just normal everyday experiences. I mean, if all of us could play the tape in our head out loud, we would all be horrified and our friends would be horrified that we say these things to ourselves. And these are the conversations that we sometimes have. When we're teaching or when we drive home from our class and we say, oh, you didn't do this or you didn't do that. Um, I had a teacher tell me recently someone years ago said something negative about her class to the studio owner and she still to this day thinks of that person occasionally when she goes into the room.

So. These things, you know, there, there needs to be a reframing of these things so that we are able to move past the stories we create about ourselves as teachers, because on the other side of that is exactly what we're talking about, those empowered classes where we just feel amazing and in response, our students hopefully do as well.

And [00:21:00] final thing, to have that appreciation that we can't control how they feel. Cause that's the other thing that comes up, this feeling like I want them to like it. And what I'm describing at the end of class or anytime throughout the class of teaching is this almost sort of, I think of it like, and this might not be a great example, so just forgive me if it's not a perfect match.

The idea of a flight attendant, if a flight attendant got emotionally involved in every single flight that they flew, would be. would never survive. So really good flight attendants are sort of like, um, Baron used to call it spiritual ninjas. They can just sort of walk through the energy, whether it's good energy or not so good energy and keep doing what they need to do to keep the flight going where it needs to go.

And certainly in today's environment, how many flights get way late because one person is a problem. So as a yoga teacher, that appreciation that I don't have like a [00:22:00] energetic cord between me and my students. can show up and do what I need to do. And even if they don't like it, that's not on me. have agency to feel how they want. If I, if they didn't really like the class, that's their prerogative. It's not for me to go out and teach so that everybody can like what I'm doing.

**Sage Rountree:** I love the flight attendant analogy. I think it's amazing. I think a lot of people are going to have a big light bulb from hearing that. And I always think I, as much as I try to be kind to everyone and love everyone and practice a lot of yoga and metta meditation and so on, I just don't like everybody because I'm a human being.

And why would I expect my students to be held to a higher standard than I would hold myself. I don't want to be a hypocrite. You know, I want to recognize, yeah, as you say, there's room. Some people are just not going to resonate with you or not going to vibe with you and that's okay. And if we can just seek not to become everyone's favorite yoga teacher, but you know, most people's favorite [00:23:00] or one person's favorite, if we can hit the 80 percent of the bell curve and then let go of the little tail on either end of the bell curve, then we're really winning as yoga teachers.

**Karen Fabian:** No, I agree. I mean, they have control over their perception of the class and there's no way we can change that. All we can do is go in and do all the things that we're talking about. And it's. Their choice as to if they feel it's a good fit for them. I remember when I was a newer teacher, I taught a class at four o'clock and the person after me was at 5:45.

And she always had more people than me and I was this new teacher and you know, I didn't want to accept that maybe part of the problem was I was in the middle of Austin. It was four o'clock. Most people were working at four o'clock. You know, I was sort of, Believing a lot of the stuff I was hearing that if I didn't have as big of a class as she It had to do with me and there was really that was like a big narrative and You know part of it is really It's not really [00:24:00] understanding. It's really appreciating that Even if I had a handful of people in my class, if they really are connecting with me, that's really the solid foundation upon which I want to build my reputation as a teacher, because they'll tell other people, they'll follow me to other places.

It's not just about the head count. 

**Sage Rountree:** Perfect. Karen, you know, I've been wrapping up with an affirmation in this and I know you have a beautiful list of affirmations that you've written. Do you want to offer an affirmation to listeners that might help them with this growth mindset and, um, and this effort of building confidence in the classroom?

**Karen Fabian:** Yeah, I mean, I think conceptually, one of the things I talk about a lot with teachers is this idea of teaching from what you know, so rather than just repeating something because you heard it in training, really teaching from what you know, and even for a newer teacher, so someone listening to this might say, say, Oh, I've just been teaching for six months.

There's so much. I don't [00:25:00] know. Because again, one of the other narratives in the yoga industry is it takes a long time to be a really good teacher. It takes a long time to be really good at anything, basket weaving, cooking, anything, but that doesn't mean you can't be really good in the container of your own situation.

Even as a new teacher, it takes in my view is teaching from what you know. And so what I say in this regard, at least in terms of a mantra is when I teach from what I know, my confidence grows because I'm not leaning on, that's what somebody told me. Or if somebody asked me a question, that's what I was trained to say, which is such a disempowering statement. So what I would say in closing is even as a newer teacher, Teach from action. get into alignment. Don't get into anatomy. Don't even get into asking inquiry questions to tap into the somatic. Just teach from action. Step your foot forward, reach your arms up, drop your hips, bring your feet [00:26:00] together. Because I know anybody listening to this, even if they're brand new, As you said, they probably came to teacher training and to teaching from practice, so they know the actions. just speak to what you know, and then take whatever time and whatever steps, identify what you need to know, do that work, and then that repertoire will expand.

And you're continuing to teach from what you know, so you, don't have this imposter syndrome because if somebody asks you a question you can answer it from what you know because so much of yoga teaching is predicated on say this say this say this this sort of flips that a little bit and so now you're teaching and that allows you to be so much more authentic because you can say it in your own words because you know what you're talking about

**Sage Rountree:** I love it. When I teach from what I know, my confidence grows when I teach from what I know, my confidence grows. Karen Fabian, amazing message. Thank you so much. Listeners need to check out your wonderful podcast, [00:27:00] over 300 episodes and counting many of them directly on this exact topic full of wonderful, actionable advice. Um, Karen is just a fantastic resource to yoga teachers everywhere. You can find her at Bare Bones Yoga and her wonderful podcast is called Conversations for Yoga Teachers.

**Karen Fabian:** Well, thank you so much. I've loved being on and can't wait to have you on my show. 

What a fantastic asset, Karen. Karen Fabian is to our yoga teaching community and she has been so generous with me as a colleague on sharing time and podcasting advice, I'm super grateful to her and I'll be on her show, Conversations for Yoga Teachers, in a few weeks. I'm Sage Rountree. 

This is Yoga Teacher Confidential. Thank you so much for your time and attention today. Let's connect online. You'll find me at sagerountree.com, on the socials at @sagerountree with no letter D, and I would love a rating and review of the podcast. It's still new and any amount of sharing that you can do, [00:28:00] either on your favorite podcast review site or by telling your friends and colleagues about it, will be most appreciated. 

See you next time.