Every teacher has a blind spot. Not because they trained poorly, but because the field keeps moving, students keep changing, and the things we learned early tend to harden into habit.
Yoga has a name for the practice that keeps us honest about this: svadhyaya, self-study. It’s one of the five niyamas in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (2.32), and it’s the practice we come back to most in oncology yoga. Not because teachers are doing something wrong, but because the stakes are higher when the person on the mat is in or after cancer treatment.
The blind spot has an old name
The Yoga Sutras name avidya, misperception, as the root of the other kleshas, the obstacles that cloud clear seeing (2.3–2.4). Avidya isn’t a lack of knowledge. It’s taking what we believe to be true as the full picture.
For a teacher, it can sound like this:
- “I’ve taught gentle yoga for 15 years. I know how to keep people safe.”
- “My training covered modifications. I’ve got this.”
- “My mother went through chemo, so I know what students need.”
None of these are bad instincts. Each one can also keep us from seeing the student in front of us. That’s the blind spot.
Svadhyaya: study of the self, and study of the texts
Svadhyaya has two meanings, and teachers need both.
Study of the self. Noticing our habits, assumptions and reactions. Why do I reach for Child’s Pose when a student says she’s tired? Why do I avoid working an arm that had lymph nodes removed? Is that based on what I know, or on what feels safe to me?
Study of the texts. Traditionally, the sacred texts. For a teacher today, it also means returning to the sources that shape our practice, including current research and clinical guidance, and letting them change what we do.
Patanjali lists svadhyaya with tapas (discipline) and ishvara pranidhana (surrender) as kriya yoga, the yoga of action (2.1). Self-study isn’t meant to stay in our heads. It’s meant to change how we teach.
What we knew then, and what we know now
Oncology changes fast. The guidance changes, the treatments change, and so do the ways we can reach students. A few examples every teacher should know:
Guidance that changed
Lymphedema. For years, people who had lymph nodes removed were often told to protect the affected arm and avoid lifting with it. Then the PAL trial (Schmitz et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2009) found that slowly progressive strength training did not worsen lymphedema in breast cancer survivors, and reduced flare-ups. Today, the guidance is to use the arm, gradually and with care.
Fatigue. Rest was once the standard advice for cancer-related fatigue. Now, a large body of research, including a 2017 analysis in JAMA Oncology and the American College of Sports Medicine’s 2019 guidelines for survivors, points to movement over rest.
New treatments, new side effects
Immunotherapy. Over the past decade, immunotherapy has become a standard treatment for many cancers. It works by releasing the brakes on the immune system, and sometimes the immune system then affects healthy organs, including the glands that make hormones. Thyroid problems are among the most common. Less often, the pituitary or adrenal glands are affected, and some people need hormone replacement for life. For a teacher, that can look like fatigue, dizziness or weight changes that don’t fit the usual chemo pattern, and may show up months after treatment. A teacher trained only on chemo and radiation may not know to ask.
Steroids. Corticosteroids are often part of treatment, to manage immunotherapy side effects, nausea or swelling. Longer courses can thin bones, weaken muscles, raise blood sugar and disrupt sleep and mood. A student on steroids may need the same bone precautions as someone with osteoporosis, even if no one has told her that.
Neither of these is for a yoga teacher to diagnose or manage. But knowing they exist changes what you ask at intake, what you watch for, and when you suggest a student check in with her care team.
New ways to teach
Online classes. Before 2020, most oncology yoga happened in person. Now online classes are a normal option, and for some students they’re the safer one. During chemo, when white blood cell counts drop, or after a stem cell transplant, a room full of people can be a real infection risk. Teaching online lets these students keep practicing at the times they’re most vulnerable, and reaches people who live far from a class or are too tired to travel.
It also asks new skills of the teacher: cueing without touch, watching closely through a small screen, and knowing what to do if a student feels unwell at home. Those skills weren’t part of most trainings a few years ago.
A teacher who trained ten years ago and never looked again would be teaching the old answer to lymphedema and fatigue, wouldn’t know to ask about immunotherapy, and might not be ready to teach well online. Not from carelessness, but because nobody told them things changed. That’s why learning can’t stop at certification.
Tapas: the discipline of staying current
Tapas is often translated as heat, or disciplined effort. In teaching, it’s the unglamorous work of keeping up: reading the study instead of the headline, taking the continuing education course, asking a mentor to watch you teach.
It’s also the discipline of staying with discomfort. Finding out that something you’ve taught for years needs to change is uncomfortable. Tapas is choosing to change it anyway.
Aparigraha: holding what you know loosely
Aparigraha, non-grasping, is usually taught in relation to possessions. It applies just as well to knowledge. The more experience we have, the more tightly we can hold on to “the way I do it.”
Holding what you know loosely doesn’t mean doubting everything. It means being willing to update when the evidence or the student in front of you says something different. (We wrote more about this in Unlearning to Evolve.)
A svadhyaya practice for teachers
Try these after your next class. Write the answers down.
- What did I assume about a student today? Where did that assumption come from?
- What did I do out of habit? Would I choose it again if I thought it through?
- What’s one thing I taught that I learned more than five years ago? Has the guidance changed since?
- Where did I feel unsure? What would help me feel prepared next time?
- Who could I ask? A mentor, a colleague, a student’s care team, or a course.
Five minutes of honest reflection after class does more than another year of teaching on autopilot.
Learning is a practice, not a finish line
No certification, however thorough, covers everything you’ll meet in a room full of students in and after cancer treatment. The teachers who serve these students best aren’t the ones who know everything. They’re the ones who keep asking what they might be missing.
That’s svadhyaya. And like any practice, it only works if you keep coming back to it.
Keep learning with yoga4cancer
- New to oncology yoga? Start with our free course, Exploring Teaching Oncology Yoga, or learn about the 75-Hour Certificate Program.
- Already a yoga4cancer teacher? Explore Exclusive Resources including discounts on further trainings.
FAQ
What is svadhyaya? Svadhyaya is self-study, one of the five niyamas in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. It includes both reflection on your own habits and study of the texts that guide your practice.
How does svadhyaya apply to teaching yoga? It asks teachers to regularly examine their assumptions and habits, and to keep learning from current research, mentors and students, so their teaching reflects what’s known now rather than what they learned years ago.
Why does ongoing learning matter for oncology yoga teachers? Guidance for people in and after cancer treatment changes as research grows. Advice on lymphedema and cancer-related fatigue, for example, has shifted significantly over the past two decades.
Explore Oncology Yoga Classes, Courses and Research
Find a y4c trained teacher near you at yoga4cancer.com/find-a-teacher, or explore the full Beginners Series.
