Things I Wish They'd Told Me in Teacher Training

1. You will live in your car!
       Yoga studios are very spread out and you are an independent contractor, no one studio can provide you with the hours you want/need to work. So get ready to put some serious miles on your car!! All that time in traffic is a great practice on finding "inner peace."

2. You will perpetually be doing laundry.
       Especially if you sweat like I do, teach heated classes or classes where you flow with your students while teaching, you are going to want to change your clothes every class! It feels gross and smells gross to stay in the same sweaty outfit all day. Add in the classes you take as well, and you are going through 1-5 outfits A DAY! So there is always a load of laundry in the washer. (Especially since you have to hang dry all the fancy work out clothes!)

3. Keeping up your personal practice is a job requirement.
     It won't be easy to find the time and will power to get your butt into a class and completely immerse yourself in the roll of student but it is IMPERATIVE. I have found that a 1:1 ratio is ideal and to keep it I write them into my calendar just as importantly as I do the ones I teach.

4. You will never just be "done."
    As someone who likes to make lists and accomplish goals, I get overwhelmed! There is always another class to prepare, more music to listen to, new techniques to learn! The week just becomes cyclical! When I first started teaching, I would just make up one flow and one playlist on Sunday and use it in every class until the next Sunday. But as the number and types of classes that I teach have expanded, I am constantly evolving and changing my flow. It has taken a real change of mind frame to get use to being constantly working on something without feeling like I am "behind" or doing something "wrong."

5. You don't have "weekends"
 You don't get 5 days on, 2 days off (at least not at first) so learn to rest, relax and enjoy life when you can; stop waiting for the "weekend."

5. There truly is no "right" way to teach yoga.
    I still catch myself telling myself not to do a certain pose in a certain place or that I always have to do a certain sequence. There really is just NO right way. Every teacher teaches it differently, every students has a different preference. This has slowly become a real comfort for me, there is no doing it "wrong."

6. It will all go wrong.
Think of that worst thing, that one thing that you just think would DIE if it happened during your class. Well have no fear, cause it is going to happen. Student leaving in the middle of class, people yelling at you from the back of the room, completely forgetting the sequence right to left side; whatever it is, it is going to happen. So just relax, breathe and know that you will live through it, no matter what you think right now.

And the list goes on......