People pleasing as a aerial teacher

Let’s talk about people pleasing and teaching.

Are you a people pleaser? Do you also teach? Does this affect the way you teach?

So talking from experience it’s very hard to manage being a people pleaser and also a teacher. Firstly, teaching is HARD. It takes so much planning, understanding, problem solving, physical effort, creativity, compassion and then people pleasing tendencies can make all of those so much harder.

How people pleasing can show up in my teaching..

-Anxiety / stress making class plans

-Constant reading the room to check everyone is ok

-Morphing into the teacher I think people in the class want

-Excessive worrying about if people enjoyed the class during and after

-Heavy guilt when people stop coming to a class

People pleasing promotes self-sacrifice and self-neglect. Naturally when you prioritise the needs of others you are putting your own needs second. This can be so much of a habit that the thought of putting yourself first can feel selfish/ cold/ heartless. But in doing this you are also encouraging people around you to put themselves first too.

When we can begin to let that go and come back to our own needs we can find what is for us and what isn’t. For example, instead of teaching moves that we don’t enjoy, turn towards what we enjoy teaching and that will attract people towards our style. Instead of trying to do everything to keep everyone ‘happy’.

I also try to detach teaching from my identity/ worth. So if a class didn’t go great I dont have to punish myself for a week for being a bad human or over compensate in the next class.

Any teachers relating to this? Would love to hear your thoughts 🧡