Yoga Teacher Burnout is Real: Here are 8 ways to banish it
Let's Talk About Yoga Teacher Burnout.
There can be a reluctance to talk about burnout when it comes to teaching yoga, because what would people think of us? We teach yoga, we’re supposed to love it 24/7. If they’re reasonable, relatable adults they’d think, WOW I can relate! Because once you make something your j-o-b it’s forever changed and subject to things like microaggressions and burnout. Anyone else hear that collective exhale when the pandemic first hit and yoga teachers everywhere were handed a sudden break? The break you needed, but didn’t know how to ask for?
Heading into our junior year of covid-19 what refills your teaching/creative cup? How do you handle feelings of disenchantment and lack of creativity? How might you come fully alive when you are actually burned out and depleted?
If you don't have a 97th wind for even one more sprint (er, vinyasa) try on these 8 things to help you banish burnout.
Don’t feel obligated to keep up with doing an hour long yoga asana class every week. Practice and all is coming is too often used in a reductive way to be applicable to our current complex state of affairs. It’s 2022. Try shorter classes that get to the point sooner. If you wait to find 60 minutes open in your schedule you may never get on your mat.
Cut back on teaching drop in classes that no longer excite you. You know the class. It’s a little too early or late in the day. You feel a sense of dread creep in when you think about having to go, you fantasize getting a sub. I adapted this from the sage advice that says life’s too short to finish books you don’t like. Quit the book and quit the class that underpays you and requires a 40 minute drive each way. Use that time to do something that lights you up.
Suck at something new, something unrelated to yoga. It can be a surprising way to refresh and inform your teaching in the yoga room. Yoga folks can get hyper focused on looking for all the answers from within yoga when sometimes there are really good answers and discoveries awaiting us in a pottery class, training for a 5k, knitting a scarf, volunteering at a community center… everythigs’s yoga they say and I think this is what they mean. Read, Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning to be blown away by this beginner stuff.
Read a book about a topic you know nothing about. Go way out in left field with a topic that will challenge your brain, but will also give you an appreciation for things you know nothing about. I recently read, The Order Of Time by theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli. It was mind-bending! I had no idea how mysterious and complex time really is. Or go all in and write a Tiny Book about something you’re passionate about. That’s what I did last year.
Hang out with non yoga people. Yoga land can be a wonderful community and sometimes you need a break from it. Chat it up with friends and family who don’t do, teach or love yoga. It is SO refreshing! Non yoga things can have an unexpected way of inspiring and stoking your creativity. These books have nothing to do with yoga, but they have helped my yoga teaching feel fresh in surprising ways.
Take a step back and see how yoga is being taught in your community, then look at the yoga you teach. Is there anything you would change? What small way can you contribute to making yoga a better experience for people? Burnout often creeps in because you’re teaching yoga in a way that caters to everyone else but YOU. That is not a sustainable way to work. This helped me a few years ago when I was experiencing burnout. I made changes to how I teach that helped me feel more in tune with my interests and beliefs about yoga and movement. I did this slowly over a period of time so as not to jar or confuse the people coming to my classes.
Teach one new thing to your yoga students. Could be as simple as a new way to enter a familiar pose like tree pose. If you’re willing, think beyond traditional yoga poses and incorporate non-yoga movement into your class. Asana doesn’t live in a vacuum, it is movement adapted from Colonial Indian gymnastics. Is there something you’d like to teach your students, but haven’t because you worry about being judged by the studio culture or your own inner imposter police that says you need another training and a few more initials before you’re qualified? What wild wonderful thing is it?
Connect with other yoga teachers who GET YOU. This was the main reason I joined Instagram. I didn’t have a local community that I felt really connected to so I went and found one. I’ve made real life friends with teachers I first connected with online - taken their classes, workshops and have kindred conversations that help me feel relatable and seen.
Share your experience with others. Not the wellness washed #posvibesonly version. I mean the real deal you that teaches yoga to other humans. If you’re in fact burned out try offering yoga in a different way, a different format. Write about it, talk/podcast about it. Share the yoga topics that light you up, confuse you, frustrate you, helps you.
BONUS. Sometimes you need time to feel and deal with the burnout so you can understand what it’s really trying to tell you. There is nothing wrong with you if 1-8 do not resonate. You are not a bad yoga teacher if the only asana you can muster right now is an eye roll.
