Comms 101

Quality communication is essential as a facilitator. As a facilitator, we need to be great communicators in the space and outside of it. Our communication totally influences a participant’s experience. From any pre-class communication, to how we welcome people into the space, to our introduction (the frame), the class itself and then afterwards as students are leaving and any post class communication – we are conveying so much information! Communication matters. Big time. 

While we know that a large amount of information is communicated through our body language, our voice is our tool when it comes to facilitating. How we use our voice is so important, especially as we are guiding people through practices that can invoke non-ordinary states of mind – which is definitely the case with a yoga class. 

Use your Yoga Upgrade Workbook to write down your reflections on the below tips 

Comms Hacks

Here are some tips for you to reflect on around the verbal communication: 

• Ensure you project your voice so people can hear you and avoid turning your back to people while talking or speaking down towards your chest – you don’t need to shout but imagine you are speaking up and over the participants towards the wall at the back of the room 

• Articulate words clearly, if you have a tendency to mumble, practice over-enunciating your words 

• If you are demonstrating (more on that later here), it is probably obvious - but best not to speak when your face is on the mat (in Child's Pose for example). Even in Downward Facing Dog your voice can get muffled as you are talking to your legs. At the very least turn your head to face the class! Remember to especially amplify your voice if you are demonstrating 

• Use a natural but powerful speaking voice and intentionally explore tone variation – sometimes tone will be relatively even, but other times, more changeable, for example, bringing energy to your voice when encouraging participants to stay strong in a Warrior sequence, or softening your voice for relaxation – use your tone to match the moment 

• Along with tone, play with tempo, cadence, volume and speed, for bonus points – as every storyteller knows, use pauses sometimes for emphasis

• Minimise filler words, such as 'Ummm', 'You know', 'Just' (this is a really common one!) 'I want to', 'If you know what I mean', lazy compound words like ‘gonna’, ‘kinda’, wanna’ and language that may be disempowering such as ‘should’ and ‘try’ 

• Choose your words carefully – consider the impact of language and have awareness of trauma sensitive language which includes invitational language and choice (we talk a lot about this later in the course) 

• Use language that is authentic and also relevant to the audience to ‘meet them where they’re at’ (e.g. you might use different language working with teenagers than you would with a corporate group)

• Use storytelling and express real-life examples when explaining concepts so the listener can relate to the subject - we are wired for storytelling!

• Aspire to be mindful when speaking – especially if you feel nervous, better to not rush to get the words all out – take your time (facilitate grounding techniques when you need them yourself!) - more on building confidence here

• Sometimes less is more with words, and sometimes silence is golden – seek to become comfortable with pauses!

• Use a lightness and humour (when relevant!) to communicate a point or lighten things up a bit. Humour can be so powerful in teaching. And on that…  

• Smile, it will show up in your voice! You totally can hear a smile 😊