Have you  ever shown up to teach your yoga class and there’s one person signed up? How do you feel when that happens? This seems to be an interesting question for teachers: Do you  teach a class where there’s just one person in it?

I’ve had this happen to me over the years a few times and at first, I made it all about me. “Why aren’t there more people? This means I’m not popular. No one wants to come to my class.” These ideas were also reinforced by my first teacher saying to us in teacher training, “People vote with their feet.” So between the bubbling up of my own feelings of doubt and worthiness, I had that to contend with too. Great.

The funny thing is that every time that I taught these classes, for just that one person that showed up, it was an amazing experience! I had a chance to really customize the practice for the student. They had a chance to ask questions along the way. That totally  changed the dynamic from one of just me, hearing my own voice, to one of a collaboration between two people looking for the same thing: Better health for the student.

Sure, I know.. you’re saying, “But it’s not worth my time to teach to one student! What about the travel to the studio? What about the time spent? I am supposed to be reimbursed in part, based on head count. It’s just not worth it.”

All those things might be true. I can recall driving an hour once to teach a workshop that I had marketed quite a bit, as had the studio, and only one person showed up. Even though my initial reaction was dismay, again, as per usual, it turned out to be an amazing class and that person still is connected to me via social media and has attended other classes I’ve had since then.

The bottom line is this: yes, people vote with their feet. But there are SO many more variables that go into how many people will show up for your class. The time of the class, location, time of year (have you seen how class attendance drops in the summer?), weather.. it ALL has an impact. And, furthermore, who says that if you have less than some arbitrary number of people that’s a reflection on YOU? It might have nothing to do with you and everything to do with all the factors above.

Now, of course, the one factor to consider is the cost to running a yoga class for one person. Studios need to make money to sustain themselves and if classes consistently only have one or two people then it’s important they take a look at what can be done to improve the situation. But it might not have anything to do with the teacher.

Whenever I have one person in a class, be it online or in person, I always say to myself, “I’m so grateful this person is here. It took something energetically to get them to show up. I want to show up too; to be the best version of myself I can be, to share yoga with them in a way that lights them up and allows them to experience it fully.” Once I say that to myself and really feel it inside, it totally changes my perspective and I’m ready to begin. And at the end of class, I always feel amazing, connected to source and confident in the knowledge that I love teaching yoga. How can you make these scenarios less about you and more about the person who showed up?

How about you? How do you feel about this topic? Comment below. 

Looking for ways to practice on your own? Check out the dozens of sequences in my Practice Portal right here.