Losing your yoga practice

I’ve been a yoga instructor for about five years now. I try to maintain my own practice as best as I can. However, one thing that I heard while I was in my yoga teacher training is that it’s difficult to maintain your own practice. At first I thought, Well if I plan in advance that won’t happen to me…

Well, it did happen to me. When I was teaching I was so focused on planning out my classes that I didn’t make time for my own practice. And being honest, I was so tired of it that I didn’t really put forth the effort. It got to a point where I was just burned out and didn’t want to do my own practice. So I stopped. And guess what? When you stop and aren’t really focused on your flexibility, what you had you lose. My little hamstrings became tight again, my back began to stiffen, and my muscles felt tight all over. It sucked!

And I only had myself to blame. I’m still trying to get back into the swing of my own practice. I’ve had to show myself some grace and start planning some yoga classes to take. I don’t have any yoga studios by me, so I use my Peloton app. I have one instructor in particular that I love and try to do all her classes, Kierra Michelle. I love her little accent and she is just adorable. I usually take her beginners classes because I’m building up my stamina and flexibility. But slowly I am making progress. I didn’t get to this stage overnight. It happened over a lot of months, but I’ll get there.

If I could redo this, I would make sure that I do at least 1 or 2 yoga classes a week. And not focus so much on vinyasa or power, I felt like I had to sweat. Instead I would do 1 vinyasa class and then a yin or restorative to balance it out. We all need a good chill stretch like you would find in a yin or a restorative class. And I would probably limit the number of classes I taught. When I was teaching on a regular basis I would teach 2 yoga classes a week and then maybe 1-2 spin classes. That was a little much, as I was trying to juggle my full time job and also try to get my own workouts in. OVERWHELMED much?! Yes, yes I was.

If you are a yoga instructor or in the middle of your yoga teacher training how are you going to overcome this?