The Most Embarrassing Things That Can Happen to Yoga Teachers

One of the more anxiety-inducing things I struggled with when I started to teach yoga was remembering my sequence of poses. The fear of doing a disservice to students—and embarrassing myself—by forgetting something caused me to spend hours and hours researching, memorizing, and practicing before each class. I would even write the sequence and cues down in little notebooks that I kept in my glovebox so I could review them outside the studio. As I hurriedly took myself through the sequence, students would walk by my parked car and cast curious glances at my flailing arms.

Funny how I always seemed to nail it when I was alone in my car. But standing in that studio in front of a room full of faces staring at me expectantly, that didn’t always happen. The first time I spaced on teaching the second side of a pose, my stomach dropped, the blood drained from my face, and I’m pretty sure I felt physical pain. I circled back to do the pose even though it was a standing pose and by the time I realized what had happened we were already seated on the mat during the cool down. I was so embarrassed, I think I actually apologized to students as they left.

After fifteen years of teaching yoga, forgetting a pose might actually be the least embarrassing thing that has happened to me during class. Not only do embarrassing miscues and mishaps happen, they happen with some frequency. “Forgetting flows and fumbling words are weekly occurrences,” says Sarah White, who teaches classes in Dubai and leads online creative sequencing trainings. She’s not wrong.

But there are goofs and there are gaffes. Some lapses in memory or judgment simply seem to stand out more than others, whether fashion malfunctions, farts, or flashings.

Whenever we witness yoga teachers make a blunder, we are reminded that they, too, are human. Just like us. Being able to witness those teachers mess up, laugh, and simply carry on teaches us something that’s way more valuable than any physical pose: self-acceptance.

Following are some of the most embarrassing—and human—things that can happen to a yoga teacher as they lead you through your practice as well as some of their reactions and attempts to g

The Most Embarrassing Things That Happen to Yoga Teachers

1. Missed Mic Check

Early in 2020, many yoga teachers had to quickly pivot to teaching online. That demanded a crash course in cameras, lights, and audio equipment. San Francisco-based teacher Jack Workman was psyched to try out a new mic and had it set up and ready to go before class…and then he decided to take a quick trip to the loo. When he returned to his computer, he noticed several students sniggering. He quickly realized he had left his mic on the entire time he was, well, you know.

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Don’t trust yourself to remember to hit mute? Get into the habit of taking the mic off your body before stepping away for a bathroom break. If students do hear a little too much of your business, you can always joke, “Be glad the camera wasn’t on.” Also, consider removing the mic anytime you’re not actively teaching. Those intensely personal comments or expletives you drop to someone off-camera could otherwise be broadcast to your class.

2. Innocence to Innuendo

We all misstate things. Sometimes verbal slippages are slight, such as cueing “knees over hips” instead of vice-versa. Sometimes they’re a little more complex.

Milan Sundaresan, a yoga teacher as well as immigration and human rights attorney in San Francisco, typically closes her vinyasa classes with the words, “May you live with passion, may you live with joy, and may you live in peace.” One particularly sleep-deprived week, she paused before the end while her brain struggled to find the correct words, then managed to say “…REST in peace.” Her students still laugh about it.

Chicago-based Claire Mark has been teaching yoga for more than 20 years, which translates to literally thousands of classes—and ample opportunities to flub a cue. The one that continues to haunt her is when she meant to say “reach your fingertips to the ceiling” but instead said “finger tits.”

And Jenny Clise, a yoga therapist in San Francisco, still recalls the time she meant to say “set yourself up for success” and actually told her students to “set yourself up for sex.”

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: When words that are intended as innocent instead come out as innuendo, chances are everyone will simply want to chuckle. That should include you.

3. Wardrobe Malfunctions

Many teachers unintentionally court disaster while wearing not-so-snug bras and practicing twists or baring a midriff while wearing loose, billowy tops that fall forward during inversions. Mark once had her chest pop out of her shirt while workshopping a pose because her shirt was cut a little lower than she had thought. Oops.

LaVigne has experienced a similar situation but a different culprit. “Definitely that one too-loose sports bra that I still wear anyway when laundry needs to be done,” she says.

Note: The perilousness of such wardrobe selections also applies to students, not just teachers. Take caution!

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Unless everyone happens to be watching you demo a pose, chances are they didn’t witness your blooper. Tuck yourself back in and continue your practice.

4. Lewd Lyrics

In the months after graduating yoga teacher training, Renee Marie Schettler often included Amy Winehouse performing “Back to Black” in her playlists. “I prefer lesser-known acoustic tracks and there was a quiet tension in that particular version that I loved,” says Schettler, who later became a senior editor at Yoga Journal. “It was uncensored. I knew better. Yet I would take my chances and turn the volume down and talk loudly over the part where she refers to, um, the male anatomy.”

Then came a request to sub one Saturday. “I was already anxious because a teacher I respected and was crushing on unexpectedly showed up. I was so distracted by that and trying not to forget the sequence and my cues and pay attention to the students that I completely forgot to talk over the lyric. In fact, I stopped talking just before that lyric. The word just hung there in the silence.”

It would have been inappropriate but forgettable had there not been a 12-year-old in class with her mom, says Schettler. “Her mom did not look pleased. Understandably. It was not the type of quiet tension I had intended.”

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Off-color lyrics don’t sound half as bad in the car as they do in the quiet sanctity of a yoga class. If the lyrics need to be censored, they probably have no place in your playlist.

5. Incendiary Incense

Yogi Bryan, who teaches yoga and meditation online and around the country, considers himself an incense enthusiast. He was psyched to try out a new incense holder during an online class and was enjoying the aroma…until he realized he might be catching a whiff of something more. When he turned to look, he realized the holder was leaking oil and had caught fire. He calmly blew on it. That didn’t help. Attempting to remain at ease and not disrupt the low-key vibe for students, he poured a little water from his bottle on it. That didn’t go as planned.

“The water made the fire explode three feet in the air until it completely went out,” says Yogi Bryan, who was unharmed during the incident. (You can watch the entire thing.)

Sometimes where there is smoke, there is no fire. Tamara Jeffries, also a senior editor at Yoga Journal, was teaching online when her room—and her on-screen Zoom box—filled with smoke from a smudge stick that kept smoldering. There remains a huge black hole in her beige carpet.

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: “We can’t take our yoga practice too seriously but we need to take incense burners seriously,” says Yogi Bryan, only half-jokingly. Some yoga studios ban incense and candles. If you use them, you probably want to ensure they’re not on the floor, where they could be knocked over, and that they’re not within several feet of fabric. Never leave a room unattended if there are lit candles or incense.

6. Falling Out of a Pose

Ashlee McDougall, a yoga teacher and chronic illness advocate who owns Yoga Loft in Tucson, wasn’t feeling particularly tired or unwell the day she decided to demo Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm Balance) in front of an entire class. Quite the contrary. “I went into it with fulllllll confidence,” wrote McDougall in a message.

Except she promptly fell out of the pose, crashing on her head. She was fine, although she wasn’t so certain about her students’ consequent relationship to the pose. “No one else attempted Pincha that day,” she says. McDougall no longer demonstrates or includes that pose in her classes. “I don’t teach it because it’s not accessible,” she says. “I dropped the idea that people could just balance, upside-down, on their forearms.”

Kristin McGee fell out of a pose, too. But when she toppled backward out of Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose), she was teaching class in front of literally hundreds of students via the streaming platform Peloton. McGee quietly picked herself up and came back into the pose. She feels that behavior was a more essential lesson for students than if she had held the posture perfectly. “It’s not about preventing the fall,” she says. “It’s actually about embracing it and learning how to bounce back.”

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Although falling out of a pose might seem to detract from your teaching, it can actually enhance it. Helping students see the humanness and the humor in the situation can help cushion the fall. “When I used to teach yoga to kids in schools, I’d fall out of poses on purpose so they wouldn’t get too type A about it,” says Sarah Herrington, who leads yoga classes and mindful writing workshops in New York City.

7. Gong Show

It can be hard to resist the temptation to share something new—a pose, transition, cue, even sound instrument—right away.  “I was all excited to test my first Tibetan singing bowl,” says LaVigne. “The class was deeply relaxed in Savasana and the room was so quiet. I wanted to use it to gently signal the end of Savasana but I hadn’t actually tested how to hit it. I took the wooden thing and gave it a really good whack. It was SOOOO loud! A total shock. One gentleman told me afterward that he saw stars.”

It’s said that enthusiasm and anxiety are just different sides of the same coin. “When I first started teaching, I was trying to lead a class through alternate nostril breathing but I was nervous,” says Herrington. “I said something about starting on the right side and what to do with that nostril, the first nostril. Then I mentioned the second nostril. And then I said something about the third nostril.” Herrington caught her mistake and promptly made a joke about that instruction being “for the aliens in the room.’”

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Practice, practice, practice.  “As a newer teacher, I learned to practice how to explain things more at home first before I got in front of a large group,” says Herrington.

8. Graceful On the Mat, Clumsy AF Off It

“When I first started teaching, someone had their water in a Mason jar of water instead of a bottle and I accidentally knocked it over and spilled it everywhere,” says Clise, noting that’s probably her “most tasteful embarrassing moment.” Fortunately, yoga blankets are relatively absorbent.

Not all accidents are so easily fixed. Schettler was teaching a candlelit class, slowly walking in between mats and water bottles, when she felt—and heard—a crunch. In the dim lighting, she hadn’t seen a pair of glasses set off to the side of a mat.

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Schettler whispered an apology to the student during class and asked to pay for the repair after class. The student reassured her the lenses were fine and the frame was just slightly bent.

When things like this happens, both teachers and students learn a lesson: Keeping a careful watch on more than students’ bodies and keeping personal possessions near the perimeter of your mat.

9. Playlist Panic

Desi Bartlett, a pre- and post-natal teacher, had just settled students in Savasana during a private corporate class for high-powered attorneys when her soothing playlist of devotional music ended a little sooner than expected…and Salt-N-Pepa‘s “Push It” started blasting from her birthing playlist. A mother of two, Bartlett is accustomed to having quick reflexes. She immediately reached for her phone to switch playlists while her students collapsed into laughter.

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Almost every teacher has had a moment of calm, whether near the beginning of class or the end, interrupted by a playlist that was accidentally on shuffle or autoplay. It happens. That moment of levity might actually be as beneficial as the yoga.

10. Fashion Fail

Early morning yoga classes can be tricky. “You’re getting ready while half asleep and pretty much in the dark,” says White. “I’ve taught an entire class with my pants inside out. I didn’t even realize until I’d gotten to my next client and they told me.”

The same thing happened to Rachel Land, New Zealand-based yoga teacher and co-host of the Yoga Medicine podcast. “I was in Malasana (Squat) facing the students, and looked down to see my tights inside-out, with a big white triangle of lining cloth clearly visible. I immediately pointed it out to the students, had a good laugh, and turned sideways for the rest of the class.”

Several teachers shared stories of leggings with ripped seams at the crotch, including Christina Muruato, who didn’t realize anything was amiss. But one of her students certainly did. “She noticed mid-class and was trying to signal me, but I thought she was asking for modifications on the poses so I just kept on with my verbal cues,” says the Phoenix-based yoga teacher and founder of Delasol Yoga. “Luckily, I had underwear on, but they were a nude color so it definitely looked like I was showing more than I was. So embarrassing!”

You don’t need to be wearing your clothes for them to malfunction. “I teach hot yoga, so I try to change if I’m teaching three hot classes back-to-back,” says London-based Bianca Butler. “I was walking toward the bathroom with my knapsack and reached into it to grab something. I didn’t notice until the other teacher said, ‘I think you dropped these,’ that my spare undies were on the floor in front of the studio owner and students.”

Sometimes the fashion misstatement is forced on you. Tamika Caston-Miller once forgot to pack her teaching clothes before class. Unfortunately, the studio where she was teaching failed to carry an array of clothing for all body types. This left Caston-Miller with a single leggings option. It was already embarrassing for Caston-Miller, who currently owns the inclusive Ashé Yoga studio, that the leggings were a poor fit and not in her preferred color palette. But she breathed through her annoyance and taught class. Afterward, she learned that her pants were entirely see-through, revealing her flowery undergarments each time she bent over.

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Caston-Miller started to test drive new leggings before she buys them, bending and stretching in front of a mirror. If you teach regularly, you might want to keep a bag with a backup outfit in your vehicle…just be attentive as you reach in and pull something out!

11. Snoozing During Savasana

It’s not uncommon for students to fall asleep during Savasana. It’s not unheard of for teachers to doze off, too. Yogi Aaron, the author of Stop Stretching! A New Yogic Approach To Master Your Body and Live Pain-Free, had arrived back home after a long flight from India earlier in the day and was teaching an evening class. As he cued students into Savasana, he settled onto his mat as well. A student jostled him awake 30 minutes later asking if class was over.

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: The entire class agreed it was the best Savasana they’d ever had—albeit, in the words of one student, “a little long.” If it’s financially feasible for you, find coverage for any classes that coincide with your travel days. Same applies for when you’re sick or exhausted. Or you may choose not to lie down for Savasana.

12. Trust Fall

Sometimes teachers place hands on students to help them find a more intense stretch or to indicate safer alignment in a pose. This can sometimes backfire, as White experienced with a client during a private class. “She was in a reclining figure 4 stretch with her foot on my thigh, I was leaning toward her, and for some reason, I told her to release without taking my weight from her,” recalls White. “I ended up nearly crashing on her!”

The student, with whom she had a longstanding relationship, was unharmed and, thankfully, amused. “We laughed,” says White, “She was like, ‘I thought it was strange but I just trusted you so I did it!”

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Your students’ well-being is always your first concern. Check to see whether they’re injured and, if so, handle it as you would any injury in class. And don’t offer a litany of excuses when you apologize or expect your student to make you feel better.

13. Adjustments Gone Awry

“I was teaching a candlelight yoga class at a studio where we tried to give everyone a Savasana adjustment,” explains Clise. “It was really hard to see the students and one of them was wearing a black t-shirt. When I went down to press down on her shoulders, I accidentally placed my hands on her boobs and she whispered to me, ‘At least buy me dinner first.’

We both started crying, we were laughing so hard. I was thankful she knew me and realized that it was an accident.”

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: As Clise learned, err on the side of caution any time you make physical contact with students through your hands or any part of your body. Also, remain mindful and respectful of their personal space as you move among a crowded studio where you could inadvertently bump into someone.

Note from Yoga Journal editors: This anecdote had a fortunate ending, although unwanted physical touch in yoga classes is a very serious matter. Many studios encourage students to let teachers know before class if they prefer not to receive an adjustment. If you feel that you have experienced intentional and inappropriate touch in a yoga class, we encourage you to reach out to the studio manager.

14. Loving Kindness Cockroach Meditation

“It was the beginning of class at a studio where I used to teach and I was giving my dharma talk,” says Neeti Narula, a yoga and meditation teacher in New York City. “Suddenly a student jumped up excitedly. I thought maybe she was really getting into what I was explaining! Then she said, ‘I’m so sorry, but there’s a huge cockroach!’”

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: “Well, I wasn’t going to squish a cockroach in a yoga class,” says Narula. “But I also wasn’t going to send it loving kindness. I’m terrified of cockroaches and I literally have nightmares about them. So we just left it in the corner and then after class we captured it and then released it outside the studio.”

15. The Gift of Gab…And Pac-Man

Sometimes teachers mean to help by adding more words to clarify…but end up doing the opposite. “I introduced a new prop variation—placing a block between the heel and butt in an initial stage for Natarajasana (Dancer Pose)—and I was attempting to explain how the tendency is to drop the block by straightening the knee when doing hip circles,” says Allison Ray Jeraci, a yoga teacher who likes to offer unexpected options to help students fall in love with movement in their body. “I was doing well up to that point. Then I told them it was ‘like a game of Pac-Man where your heel is Pac-Man and the block is the bead and you want to continue to move your Pac-Man into your block.’”

Jeracai says the entire class just stared at her at the same time…and then everyone—including her—broke into laughter. “It was one of those times where I didn’t need to continue to explain my metaphor but I just kept going and digging myself deeper.”

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: Less is more most of the time. “But when you go for more, at least hope it makes everyone laugh!” says Jeracai.

16. Extemporaneous Farting

Biological functions happen. “I think we’ve all experienced that fart that you sort of feel on the precipice of releasing but were successfully holding it in until some move lets it squeak out, right?” says Leta LaVigne, founder of yogaRocks in Finland. “I mean, let’s be honest, it’s not an abnormal occurrence in a yoga studio!”

Or in a television studio. While auditioning for a DVD with MTV, McGee was balancing in Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose) when she audibly passed a little gas. She still got the gig.

What You Can Do If It Happens To You: “I just ignore it if I hear anyone fart,” says LaVigne. “Even if the 10-year-old me is laughing inside.”

If You’re a Yoga Teacher, Here’s How to Handle Embarrassing Moments

Just because you made a faux pas doesn’t mean you’ve failed as a teacher. It simply makes you human. Especially when there are extenuating circumstances. “Sometimes teaching conditions are perfect—I’m well rested, well fed, and calm,” says London-based teacher and father of a newborn, Adam Husler. “Other times, I’ve run across London to the fifth class of the day, having spent the day before teaching a training in another country!”

While no one can control the unexpected, we can control our response. “In these circumstances, the likelihood of me forgetting a pose on one side goes up by multiples! I’ve learnt various coping strategies,” says Husler. “Sometimes I laugh. Sometimes I tell the students it was to represent the fundamental asymmetry of life! Once I told the students it was a test designed to see their honesty! Haha. All with a cheeky smile!”

To err is human. To laugh at it is divine.

About Our Contributors

Sarah Ezrin is an author, world-renowned yoga educator, popular Instagram influencer, and mama based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her willingness to be unabashedly honest and vulnerable along with her innate wisdom make her writing, yoga classes, and social media great sources of healing and inner peace for many people. Sarah is changing the world, teaching self-love one person at a time. She is also the author of The Yoga of Parenting. You can follow her on Instagram at @sarahezrinyoga and TikTok at @sarahezrin.

Renee Marie Schettler is a senior editor at Yoga Journal and has worked as an editor at The Washington Post, Real Simple magazine, and online media. She started studying yoga nearly 20 years ago with teachers in New York City who emphasized the challenge of finding precise alignment in a posture. Her understanding of yoga changed when she began practicing with teachers who assert the practice is less about how we execute a pose and more about whether we can surrender into the stillness of it. She finds that editing, writing, and practicing yoga are each about becoming more aware of truth. She has been teaching yoga since 2017.