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Veteran
Posts: 163
 
| I finished my 200 hour training about 4 months ago and have been teaching regularly for 7 months. Today, for the first time, I am facing the experience of feeling tired when putting my class plan together, rather than feeling excited. I guess I am getting to the place in my teaching where it isn't *new* all the time, and the time change, loss of the hour, has really knocked me on my butt this year, but I am assuming that I am not the only yoga teacher who has had to teach even when they didn't feel like it.
Any advice for this newbie from some of you who've been teaching for a long time? Should I do a lower energy class to be in line with how I am feeling and my own practice today, or should I teach a higher energy class.....
Thoughts? |
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| well, i don't plan classes (unless i'm doing a specific series), and so it's really not the same situation. i just do what the bodies need to do.
now, there are days where i feel low energy or not motivated. i simply acknowledge my feelings but do what i need to do anyway. if i'm feeling that chronically, then i question why i feel that way and figure out what i need to do to feel more balanced. |
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| Sounds like your are a little burned out. Maybe take a couple of days off from teaching? Go take a class in a another form of yoga? Are you teaching a great deal and are you personally practicing a lot?
Edited by yogabrian 2010-03-16 8:25 PM
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| I agree with everything that both zoebird and yogabrian have said and would like to repeat the idea of going to some other yoga style classes as it will broaden your outlook and stimulate some new ideas. It is also always good to experience class from the student's perspective.
I also teach like zoebird i.e. without a specific plan. If you do your class with an overall structure and then pick poses, tempo, duration etc based on who is in the class and how they are responding, you start to be more aware of and communicate better with the students. This interaction with your students and always adjusting your class to fit their needs makes teaching really come alive for both you as the teacher and for the students.
It is hard to get burned out when you teach this way as each class is new and unique. It is very similar to jazz improvisation, where you start with a basic idea and let your intuition and your communication with the other people take you to a new place each time, staying within a specific framework.
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Veteran
Posts: 163
| Thanks to all of you who responded. I have found that, as a new teacher, my need to plan has changed dramatically as I've taught more. Even in the short while that I've been teaching, I have found my level of comfort increasing which allows me to be more in tune with what the students/class energy is and teaching to that....but I am new enough that I have to have some kind of class plan for my own benefit. I almost always go off plan, but having it helps me feel like I have somewhere to go if I just freeze up (not that that has happened  .
I really like what yogabrian said about taking some other type of classes. I practice on my own daily and go to class with my teacher once or twice a week, but it would probably be good to broaden that. I am going to the Yoga Journal conference in Boston in April and will be studying with people I've never had the opportunity to study with before, so that will be really good. I am especially excited about doing a full day work shop with Tias Little and a workshop on back health with Gary Kraftsow.
Thanks everyone.
Edited by Seeker101 2010-03-17 1:51 PM
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| Hello Sharon,
My perspective on this is a bit different, though not in opposition to what's already been offered.
I would look at my energetics and intentions as a teacher.
Energetically, how am I protecting my self (energetically) such that I am not taking on the issues that my students bring AND am not drained by, but DO meet, their varying needs.
Am I surrounding myself with light before and after class? Am I holding the energy of the class? Am I cleaning my energetic field appropriately - including bathing and changing clothes before/after teaching? This also requires that I ensure I am not "over giving" as a teacher. There are differing views on this and differing definitions however I believe a teacher gives from their excess (which can be abundant depending on how we are living) otherwise they become depleted and often ill.
As it relates to intention I would go inside and verify that I am only making myself the tube through which yoga passes, that the teaching is not about me, and that I am not performing nor am I behaving to be popular, liked, have friends, retain students. This too can drain the energy of the teacher.
And, of course more pragmatically there is the matter of rest, meditation, and nutrition which needs to complement the living of a yoga teacher.
These are the things I would look at for me, in my life, if I were feeling drained or burned out by something I had chosen to do.
Edited by purnayoga 2010-03-18 3:47 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 163
| Thanks Gordon. Those are excellent points/thoughts for me to consider. I do think that, as a new teacher, I am a little bit tied up in the outcome (worrying about whether students like me and come back next week). Once my class starts, we've breathed and centered ourselves, I find that I am able to get in tune with the energy of the class and can pick up on what is needed but the pre-class nerves still exist.
In the studio in which I work, I have to check my students in, put them in the computer, take money, write out cards, etc. right before class and I think that as I run into class, I am not really in the energetic place to begin teaching......It might be why I am having these issues.
I will think about the points that you raise; and see what comes up for me.
really appreciate the thoughtful responses from the more experienced posters to this board.
Namaste. |
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Experienced teachers....some advice?
