Yoga teacher training is a wonderful process that combines your love of yoga and which includes the mission to help people. When you are through with your training, changing to become a teacher can be quite fulfilling as well as challenging. Probably the most often cited difficulty for new teachers is the balance between one’s own practice and the obligations arising from teaching.
Your own practice is not just a form of self indulgence; it forms the bedrock on which you approach teaching. It stops you forgetting things and losing touch with the practice, keeps skills honed and passion kindled. Failure to do so may gradually make you tired or bored with the task. Well, how do you manage to teach and at the same time practice yoga for yourself? Alright, let’s go through some specific changes to support the practice while being a great teacher.
Why Personal Practice Matters for Teachers
Before we dive into tips, let’s talk about why your personal practice is so crucial:
- Inspiration: Your personal practice keeps you connected to the joy of yoga. It reminds you why you became a teacher in the first place.
- Authenticity: When you practice regularly, you teach from experience, not theory. This makes your classes feel more genuine.
- Growth: Yoga is a lifelong journey. As you continue practicing, you’ll discover new insights and skills to share with your students.
- Self-Care: Teaching can be draining. Personal practice is your time to recharge and nourish your body, mind, and spirit.
7 Practical Strategies to Balance Personal Practice and Teaching
Balancing your practice and teaching requires a mix of intention, planning, and flexibility. Here’s how you can approach it:
1. Make Personal Practice Non-Negotiable
Of course, when life becomes hectic, it is easy to neglect personal practice. The way to approach it is to consider it a necessity, not a luxury. Commit yourself to devote a certain period of time in a day or even in a week for your practice. No matter if it is morning or evening, don’t schedule anything for this time, just the way you would not schedule a class that you are going to be teaching.
Frequency is more important than the length of the frequency. It only takes 20 minutes to get these benefits to your body, mind and soul. When the day gets really stressful, it is possible to just sit and meditate or do a few rounds of the sun salutations.
2. Allow Teaching to Inspire Your Practice
There are so many ways that teaching and personal practice can be mutually beneficial. When your students appear to be challenged in some ways with certain poses or flows, take the opportunity to go further into it. For instance, if a student wants to know what it is like to build core strength, you can try out sequences that are related to that during your self-training.
Your practice can also be a place for testing of new classes. Want to explain a new flow or theme in class? Before implementing it on your employees, make sure you try it yourself and see whether it’s fluid and exciting or not. This not only improves your own practice but also your teaching, I found this aspect to be one of the most valuable.
3. Keep Your Practice Flexible
There are some days when you wake up with lots of strength and you can practice very energetic vinyasa or complicated poses. Other days, especially when you have several classes in the morning and you are teaching all day, you might want to do a softer practice.
By being aware of your body, you will be in a position to change your strategies as you progress. There is absolutely nothing wrong with dedicating an entire practice to restorative postures, breathing exercises, or even just a seated meditation when you are tired. The important thing about your practice is not to get it right – it’s about doing the work for yourself.
4. Stay Connected to Your Role as a Student
Being a teacher is never boring because deep down, you’re always a learner. Education is very important in every individual’s personal and professional life as it helps him or her to change.
Take other teachers’ classes in order to get motivated and see things from different angles. Other forms include workshops, retreats or any other form of advanced teacher training programs are also other great methods. Yoga done in the company of a group of yogis is likely to bring back the passion you had when you first started practicing yoga.
5. Don’t Be Hard on Yourself
It is important to remember that life is full of surprises, and there will be days when your personal practice will be disrupted. Instead of feeling guilty, embrace the fact that balance is a process and not a schedule.
Acknowledge those little victories to yourself, such as managing to squeeze in a 10-minute meditation or journaling. And it does not only imply postures but also a way to look at the world and at oneself. Remember to be gentle with yourself while learning how to teach and also practice at the same time.
6. Seek Support
If you are having difficulty with managing your practice while teaching, do not feel shy contacting for assistance. Discuss how other teachers of yoga or mentors do it. This will most probably give you a lot of answers because you will realize that most of them have passed through similar situations as you and therefore have good tips to give.
Another benefit of practicing teaching gestures is that, when joining a community of teachers, one may get an accountability partner to help keep one on track when practicing the gestures.
7. Reconnect with Your “Why”
Finally, always remember what made you take up yoga exercise in the first place. Was it to find peace? To feel stronger? To find your inner self?
It’s simple to lose sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing when you’re super busy, but it’s always important to get back in touch with that feeling.
Conclusion
While teaching yoga and keeping up a personal practice is something that I always need to work on, I have learned, as any yogi, that it is as dynamic as the practice itself. For that, the practice should remain your focus, you should define the limits and get motivated to keep it between the teacher and the student of yoga.
I have said that your personal practice is a gift for you and for your students. That is when you are most real, most a teacher, when you choose to foster it in those tiny pockets of time between lesson planning, student teaching, and assessment.
So, unfold your blanket and take deep breaths and just enjoy the flow. Well, yoga is not about doing it right, is it – it is about balance in our lives as we do it on the mat and as we live it.