Tips for Yoga Teachers
Self-Practice Tips for Yoga Teachers: As Yoga teachers, we are immersed in the Yoga world. Our free time is spent reading our favourite magazines and books. We take vacation time to attend Yoga festivals and conferences, and some of us spend our nights and weekends fulfilling a passion for sharing and teaching Yoga. It can be devastating when our Yoga practice is lacklustre, or we find ourselves stepping on the mat less and less frequently.
I’ve gathered a few tips from my periods of inactivity and pulled together a handful of tricks to prioritise my Yoga practice. Here’s what I suggest to my yoga-teaching pals and mentorship clients:
Schedule a sadhana.
Create a daily personal practice for a specific period and get detailed on what, when, and for how long you’ll be on the mat. Clarify what type of practice will best serve you and the intention behind your sadhana.
Keep your teaching prep and personal practice time distinct.
If you frequently set out to design a sequence or drop into a group class and find yourself tending to your teacher’s mind, it may be time to separate the two. Block out time to connect to your teaching side and honour your practice by creating a boundary where appropriate.
Swap your teaching shift for a solo Yoga session.
If you’re short on time, find it hard to prioritise self-care or your Yoga practice, or spend more time teaching than practising, consider dedicating one of your teaching slots each week to your regular self-care.
Have a pre- or post-teaching ritual.
It pays to have a recurring ritual that occurs before and/or after you teach. You may commit to a full home practice before you teach, or you may deepen your meditation or pranayama practice by devoting 15 minutes of personal studio time to each class you instruct.
Carving out time and energy to cultivate a personal practice may be something you’ve been considering for some time; integrating one of these tips is the element you need to breathe new life into your practice.
How do you honour your Yoga journey? What steps will you take to deepen and nourish your practice?
Article by Yogi Mohit
