Yoga teachers self care

Teaching yoga is an amazing job. You see ongoing physical and emotional development of those who attended your class. Your ongoing positivity and encouragement to your student helps with their self confidence, self love, compassion and belief, but what about you, the teacher? How do you care for yourself?

Maybe without realising it you give so much of yourself in each yoga class you deliver. Yoga teaching is a 'caring' job. We teach our students self care, respect for themselves and their bodies and to take time out to themselves and sometimes we don't practice what we preach. How often have you heard yourself say 'use your practice to be present, forget what has happened before class'?

Planning and preparing for different themed classes takes time and sometimes at the detriment of our own personal practice. Working on Asana flow for a lesson plan is not a substitute for time set aside for personal practice.

Don't feel guilty about the time you spend meditating or participating in yoga nidra. These are essential aspects of your practice to help relax, bring calmness, focus and restore your energy. I'm still working out logistics so I can do yoga nidra in the car whilst my son is at table tennis training!

Finding like minded yoga teachers within your local area and developing networks. Not every yoga teacher teaches at a yoga studio and it can be isolating when working independently. Social media can be a great tool in identifying peers with similar interests, ideas and work collaboratively. Even helping out with class cover!

Fellow Yoga Nidra Teacher Group

Ongoing training after qualifying as a yoga teacher have benefits for further learning, developing self practice and having time away from home to focus on yoga self practice. Ongoing training can be costly financially but provides a great opportunity to network, professional development and learn from peers by sharing experiences and practice.

Attending a yoga retreat may seem like an extravagance, something i have yet to embrace. However if you are looking to possibly develop your business into putting on a yoga retreat, attendance is a perfect business opportunity.

To prevent burnout self care is crucial for yoga teachers. Practising what we preach to our students is a great starting point in self care. If you don't look after yourself time will pass and show you how little you have to give. Lets have self love, care and compassion. We are worth it!