New teachers fill every pause with words. The bravest cue you will ever give is the one you do not say.
In teacher training practicums, there is a moment I watch for: the new teacher guides the class into a pose, and then — silence looms. Almost always, they rush to fill it. Another alignment cue. A quote. Anything but the quiet.
The instinct is kind; silence feels like abandonment when you are new. But students do not need constant narration. They need permission to have their own experience — and silence is that permission.
Try this: after your next settling cue, count five slow breaths of your own before speaking again. Watch the room. You will see shoulders drop and faces soften. Nothing you could have said would have done that.
Holding silence is not the absence of teaching. It is teaching at its most trusting — and students can feel the difference between a teacher who is quiet because they are lost, and one who is quiet because they are present.
Aga
Yoga teacher & founder of Inflow