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Self-Care & Burnout

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Teaching Arts

Overview

In this lesson, we explore the realities of yoga teacher stress and burnout, including practical strategies for managing challenges and sustaining your teaching practice.

Objective

Understand common sources of yoga teacher stress and gain strategies for alleviating burnout through replenishing, restoring, and connecting.

What You'll Get

You'll face the truth that teaching yoga comes with real stressors—money struggles, business pressures, compassion fatigue, loss of personal practice, and isolation. But you'll also find solid support for getting through difficult periods. This lesson shares stories from high-functioning teachers and studio owners who've faced burnout and recovered, along with practical information on adrenal stress and physical exhaustion. You'll learn how to spark your inspiration, manage expectations, and make changes that support your longevity as a teacher. This isn't about pretending teaching is easy—it's about preparing yourself for the reality.

Questions Answered Here

How can you spark your inspiration and be reminded of your personal motivation to teach?
Describe the research that shows struggle and “failure” lead to better outcomes than having not struggled.
What are some sources of common yoga teacher stressors?
What strategies can help to alleviate stress and address burnout?

Stress

If you wish to teach yoga for some time, a key learning is that stress is as likely as in other career choices.
In an excellent Yoga International article, James Keogh gives solid and detailed information, inspiration, support and tools for yoga teachers facing stress and burnout. The article includes stories of high-functioning yoga teachers and studio owners who have faced struggles and how they got through them. The article covers the following:

Yoga Teacher Stressors – The author provides an excellent summary: money woes, business stressors, compassion fatigue, loss of practice and a sense of isolation. Read examples of not having the ability to hold space any longer and the burnout from having a studio.

Making Changes – Reducing stress levels and learning to manage stress better are explained through examples of how teachers and studio owners made changes and how long it took to get through them.

Overcoming Burnout – Sweetly categorized as “replenish, restore and connect,” there is information on stages of adrenal stress, adaptation, adrenal exhaustion, and physical burnout.

Not for the Faint of Heart

Teaching yoga is a soulful, satisfying job, but it’s not for the faint of heart. You’ll go through significant financial ups and downs. You’ll have your ego over-inflated one day and raked through the coals the next day. And, you’ll probably work more hours than you think. This isn’t to dissuade you from being a teacher. It’s to help you have clear expectations about the livelihood you’ve chosen. When your expectations are in-line with the reality of teaching yoga, you’re much more likely to be happy and satisfied as a teacher. – Jason Crandell

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