Is being a yoga teacher stressful?

Teaching yoga is an incredibly rewarding way to earn a living. It's also much more demanding and stressful than people imagine. If you're often feeling overwhelmed or stressed as a yoga teacher, you're not alone. As you learn in yoga asanas, you have to find the balance between sthria and sukham.

So while the job of being a yoga instructor can be hard and you have to work really hard, it's worth it. A big part of being a yoga instructor is teaching yoga poses to students. An instructor is responsible for preparing the room for class or a private session, planning the flow of the class, choosing the appropriate music, and making adjustments or progressions and regressions for students as needed. Adjustments should be made in a calm, informative and inclusive way, understanding that each student is in a different place in their yoga practice.

Yoga and Ayurveda experts also recommend practicing yoga nidra (a guided visualization of yoga) in the late afternoon to prepare the body and mind for later sleep, and having a glass of warm milk (or almond milk) before bed with green cardamom, honey and ghee. While going through his own exhaustion, Gates thought that his fellow teachers “were fine running and giving all their yoga classes. Since I used to focus a lot on yang style yoga, such as vinyasa yoga, for my own practice, it became even more difficult to show myself on my mat. This curriculum requires no less than 200 class hours in anatomy and physiology, yoga techniques, yoga history and philosophy, and teaching methodologies.

Yoga teachers often feel pressure to be the shining example of everything yoga can offer, so when their health starts to deteriorate, the last thing they want to do is share that fact. In the early years as a yoga teacher, it's very easy to get carried away by wanting to give a good class. Group yoga teachers will need to be vigilant to detect opportunities for adjustments and when they can progress or regress in their flow between poses. On the other side of the ledger, so to speak, is compassionate fatigue, a condition that yoga teachers share with nurses, clergy, school teachers and social workers, anyone who works with people in need.

Yoga retreats are gaining in popularity, as are hotel destinations, such as resorts, hotels, cruise lines and amusement parks that offer fitness and yoga classes to guests.

Yoga teacher training provides you with a LOT of

knowledge and preliminary teaching experience that will help you when you go out into the real world when you finish your training. While money, business, and compassionate fatigue have led many yoga teachers to burn out, most point out that the loss of their personal practice is the most important factor. Instructors can immerse themselves in a yoga community that involves more than just teaching yoga classes.

Of course, I have now spoken to a lot of yoga teachers who struggle and go through all kinds of challenges. Most of the 75 hours are spent learning yoga asanas, or yoga poses, meditation and breathing techniques, since this is the basis of a yoga practice. Fitness trainers and strength and conditioning trainers are adding yoga poses to their training program to promote flexibility and take advantage of the mental health benefits of practicing yoga. Go back to the books and spiritual teachers that touched your heart, get in touch with other teachers and friends you trust, and get back on your mat to remember why you fell in love with yoga in the first place.