Teacher Self-Care, Burnout & Self-Healing

The Stress of Teaching

Teaching yoga is a soulful, satisfying job, but it’s not for the faint of heart. – Jason Crandell

If your desire is to teach yoga for a long time, it’s helpful to have clear expectations about the very real challenges and stressors, which include:

• Financial concerns
• Business stressors
• Compassion fatigue
• Loss of practice time
• A sense of isolation
• Burnout

If you are a member of Yoga International, you may wish to review this excellent article by James Keogh.

• The article covers yoga teacher stressors, making changes and overcoming burnout.
• It provides solid and detailed information, inspiration, support and tools for yoga teachers.
• It includes stories of high-functioning yoga teachers and studio owners who have faced struggles and how they got through them.

ALIGN YOUR EXPECTATIONS

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 

CARING SO MUCH FOR OTHERS

Are you feeling:

• Stuck in your teaching like your classes are becoming super repetitive
• Disappointed in yourself for not keeping up with your personal practice
• Tired of offering constant content?

As yoga teachers, we love, love, love what we do. We often care about our students so much that we agree to teach one more class or help one more client. But without proper self-care, it’s easy to burn out and eventually stop teaching yoga. Here are the four reasons most yoga teachers burn out and stop teaching yoga plus the solutions to ensure you teach as long as you desire.
– Yoga Teacher Conf 

About Burnout

Burnout is “the cumulative effects of stress built up over time without time to recover,” says Alice Fong N.D. – Karen Asp

Burnout can be thought of as an imbalance between energy output and self-care. Indicators include:

• Physical or mental depletion or exhaustion
• “Running on autopilot” or “mental distance” from your work
• Increased procrastination
• Negativity or cynicism
• Lack of joy or creativity
• Reduced efficiency or effectiveness

Physically, burnout may indicate adrenal fatigue or other imbalances.

If we observe burnout as a symptom of imbalance and inadequate self-care, we can use it as a motivator to better know ourselves, our needs and our desires. In a 2016 newsletter, Erica Rodefer Winters wrote about going through a mental checklist of what might be needed when her infant began to cry. She then drew a parallel with our own adult needs: “As adults, we don’t scream out loud for hours when we don’t meet our basic needs, but just because our cries are silent doesn’t mean we should ignore them. I realized I needed to make a checklist for myself (much like the one I had for my baby) and go through each item line by line when I was feeling run down, depleted, and just plain bad. So, I made one. I thought you might be able to benefit from it, too, so I’m including a link to it here.”

SIGNS OF WORKING TOO MUCH

How much work is too much? That’s for you to decide. But I know I’m overdoing it when:

• I feel guilty about not being productive enough.
• I work more than eight hours per day.
• I can’t fall asleep because I’ve been working at night.
• I skip lunch or eat at my desk.
• I’m too tired to exercise.
• I ignore calls from friends or family because I’ve been in one-too-many Zoom meetings.

– Kristin Wilson 

STRESS & BURNOUT CAN LEAD TO MANY PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS

I was working long hours and filling my time after work with hobbies, chores, and time with my significant other. This constant activity started to take a physical toll on my body. I felt tired all the time. I had gained ten pounds in a short amount of time. I was experiencing constant joint pain and headaches several times a week. Sometimes I would even get chest pain and a fever… The prospect of facing a serious health issue in the midst of all of the other overwhelm I was experiencing felt like more than I could handle… My diagnosis? Stress and burnout. – Erin Amborski