Advice to My Younger Self

It’s been roughly a year and a half since I started teaching yoga publicly. Being able to consistently hold space for students and potential interest in friends alike has something that I have never openly acknowledged and fathomed but this is something I am coming into full acceptance and gratitude for all of this unfolding. As friends, family, and older students have approached me and asked about this recent one-year benchmark, I had to pause and think about the progress that has been made over the past 12 months and the future as to where I will be heading.

I was pretty headstrong and naive when I first began teaching. I thought I would be able to land a fully booked schedule of permanent classes each week at a variety of studios across the city. I guess that’s the general misconception of your role from anyone OUTSIDE the fitness and wellness industry.

You don’t start off with a roster of regularly attending students - nobody knows who you are or what you represent - heck, you don’t even start off with your own permanent classes.

I guess got off pretty lucky then.

I enrolled in a mentorship program at a local yoga studio last August, working with one of my favourite and well-seasoned yogis to improve my own sequencing, cuing and better finding my voice in the style and methodology that I felt most comfortable with. Within a very supportive community that I was already very familiar with of instructors, friends, and yoga enthusiasts alike, I was able to refine and simplify what it was that I wanted to teach.

A colleague of mine had mentioned that volunteering at the YMCA as an instructor would be of absolute benefit, especially while getting started, and I hopped onto that train immediately. After visiting a local YMCA centre, and auditioning with the programming staff, I was onboarded to teach by the end of September.

When I first started teaching, there were many opportunities on my palate. I must say I was blessed to have an early and consistent line-up of teaching timeslots, however, there were definitely many hiccups on the way that I wish I would have known or better prepared for. If you are starting in your career of teaching or coaching, here are some helpful tips to keep in mind:

1. The timeslots of these classes sometimes brings few if not, any students for the first few weeks.

   • How to retain new students?

   • How to work with the studio owner to ensure the timeslots work for most people?

2. Clear and efficient communication of your needs with studio management and staff

   • It takes time to find the environment that you vibe with and can appreciate the timeliness and effort for management staff to support you and accommodate for any class needs and changes.

3. Accept payment for your time

   • Regardless if you are teaching or assisting or simply showing up for your scheduled class - saying yes or asking for payment is not wrong nor should it feel guilt-induced.

   • If monetary payment is not available, then an exchange of services or other proprietary item can be requested in lieu of your time.

4. That being said, never do it for the money or reputation.

   • Try to see it from the viewpoint of your students or attend more classes yourself. Reputable instructors with a large following are never after the money

   • You attract the vibe of the tribe that you will naturally belong in. Don’t try to be everywhere all at once, in hopes that someone in a higher, managerial position will notice you.

5. Take on open subbing opportunities but also be able to say "no.”

   • One of the most imminent things I’ve learned while making yourself available to sub is sometimes knowing when to pass over a good opportunity to someone else. There will always be other teaching opportunities if you maintain good relationships and strong networks so be careful if you are weaning yourself thin just to take on an additional class.

   • You will gradually receive more opportunities to teach based on the quality of the classes you sub, not the quantity.

   • Not every studio will provide the support you need to grow as an instructor.

On top of thinking I could teach fast-pased power and vinyasa classes, I had to actually simplify my sequences and improve my cuing for slower Hatha-based classes.

Since then, I have learned to teach at a slower and engaging pace and make time to attend and teach more mindful Meditation, Restorative and Yin classes in addition to my regular Vinyasa Flow classes. I have also assisted a handful of classes providing hands-on touch, adjustments, massage and Reiki. Providing energy healing is a practice that enables my own

Keep Yourself Accountable! The Art of Journaling

It’s quickly approaching the second week of 2019 - the time to review new resolutions, write down new goals, change routines, and look at what is no longer helping us in our growth.

Photo: Julia Hilao Photography

Let’s get REAL.

Most people fall off the map in regards to attaining any of their goals or they get lazy, lose motivation, or feel incredibly overwhelmed and exhausted before the end of January. These drastic, mental and physical lifestyle changes can feel like a burden, especially if you are not used to monitoring escalating changes in such a short period of time. What activities can feel empowering for some, may also feel incriminating and defeating for others.

Write it all down.

Writing allows a simple coherency of clarity of the thoughts. Putting pen to paper and utilizing mental and physical effort to express patterns in ideas, poetry, facts or lexical jargon is a skill and talent we are all blessed with, whether we choose to exercise this habit on a regular basis or not.

The simple discipline of writing is taught from a grade-school age and has since become less popular with the rise of mobile devices, recorders, and digital tablets. Most people write down grocery lists, daily to-do lists, or even write down driving directions in a matter-of-fact manner. Allowing the mind to decipher through visual cues, memories, recent events, and lexical meanings, can create confirmation, affirmation, or a physical release from the mental or emotional attachment or a person, place, moment in time.

Writing is like Meditation.

Have you heard of automatic writing? The psychologist Carl Jung coined the term in the ‘60s, this process of writing autonomously with no expectation of reader or sender, no expectation to create, no validation that the mumble of words even creates.

By focusing presently on words that come to paper, rather than analysing and focusing on the reader’s intent, outcome, or shiny, revised revision that sounds poetic, pristine, and refined, come to a place where raw unpacking of the mental mind can fully begin.

Just like meditation, come from a place of non-judgment and patience. (Read: Meditation & Mindfulness: debunking the ancient practice) Wait for any random words to come into mind. If you need to set up a comfortable and quiet place to reflect and journal (as you would meditate), do so. Some moments, many words will flow surreptitiously; other moments, maybe a single sentence will form.

If it helps, set a timer for 5-10 minutes to start. As meditation does not come easy for many, so is the act of getting clear with your thoughts as you write them down. If you are not familiar with describing or coherently addresssing the thoughts or emotions as they come up, simply start with listing the physical surroundings, people and things around you. Using a prompt such as a candle, a piece of poetry, or a still-life object for your writing creates less conscientious focus on trying to get it right and just allows the process to let it all flow.

WRITING PROMPT #1

What is inhibiting you from living your life’s Purpose?

Draw a table of three columns.

In the first column, write down all the current activities that you are actively involved in. Whether this includes recreational sports, professional career, family/social obligations, weekly networking, etc., create lists of all the activities that you include yourself in on a regular daily or weekly basis.

In the second column, state whether each activity is serving you physically, emotionally, socially, psychologically based on the environment, its addition to your growth, its impact, your level of responsibility, etc.

In the third column, state whether you would like to keep or remove each activity from your regular agenda in the short-term or long-term future. Be realistic with this - you don’t want to remove something drastically because its timeslot interferes with another activity that simply enhances your immediate gratification. Consider if you can keep certain activities while simply moving around their timeslots of by changing their frequency per week/month/etc.

Review this table often, call it your list of “Current Aspirations” or whatever you feel guided to name it. You can always make a new table every month, or every season whenever you feel stuck or at a standstill in your search for wanting to create more space and find more fulfillment.

If you feel inclined to start or continue your practice in journaling,

Join me for an afternoon of Meditation & Journaling on January 26, 2019. We will be working on unleashing our Fears, wipe the slate clean from judgment, criticism, and jealousy, and re-enter a cycle in our lives where we can create strong self-affirmations to nourish our growth.