Five tips to thrive as a yoga teacher
1. Morning and evening meditation
If you haven’t developed your meditation practice yet, it’s about time to do so and stick to it every day. Set yourself a realistic goal. If you already know you won’t be able to dedicate one hour each day to meditate, find a duration that you’re comfortable with and that seems easy to achieve.
Remember - it’s more powerful to meditate every morning and evening for 10 minutes rather than for 2 hours once a week.
If you find it hard to motivate yourself and stick to a plan, you can write down ten benefits from your morning and evening meditation practice. Then each day keep track of your progress and write down how you felt after meditation. If you ever miss your meditation, make sure you write down how it made you feel.
2. Attend yoga class once a week
Give yourself time and space to attend at least one yoga class a week. Find a yoga style that is nourishing and nurturing for you. If you’re very active for most of your week, chose a more gentle style like restorative or yoga nidra that will allow you to restore and re-energise. As much as you can, switch off whilst you’re in the class and let yourself be guided through the practice.
If you work a lot and struggle to fit in one hour for yourself, you can try setting up a reminder on your phone on a Monday morning to remind you to book yourself into a class that week.
3. Quantity check
Do you feel like you’re constantly working and it’s impossible for you to attend a yoga class once a week and mediate in the morning and evening? Then be honest with yourself about the number of hours you want to work each week. Forget about the financial aspect for a moment and come up with a number of classes that you’re comfortable with teaching each week on an ongoing basis. If you find that you teach more hours than you would like, why don't you look to replace your classes with some form of freelance work to relieve the financial pressure?
4. Quality check
Have you ever thought about why you’re really excited about teaching some classes and why you’re dreading teaching others? We recommend you list all classes you teach and score them from 1-10 depending on how much you enjoy teaching them. Include factors like the timing and the location of the classes. Have a clear idea of who your ideal students are, where they are located and what time you want to teach them.
Next time you’re given a new teaching opportunity, don’t feel bad about rejecting it if it doesn’t meet your requirements. It’s okay to make conscious decisions about your work-life balance.
5. Journaling
Above all, make sure you keep a journal to reflect. Give yourself honest feedback and review how you felt about teaching each week. Expressive writing is a route to healing and it brings out thoughts and ideas you never knew you had. Writing every day increases your discipline and helps you connect with your feelings and emotions.
You can keep your journal on your bedside table, so you always remember to write before you go to sleep.
Stick to our 5 tips or pick your favourite one and let us know how you get on. As Helen Keller once said, “We can do anything we want if we stick to it long enough.” At reservie, we wish you perseverance in search of well-being as a yoga teacher.