The Truth About Being A Yoga Teacher

As I mentioned previously, my current career aspiration is to be a full-time yoga teacher / fitness instructor. Since I got back from Costa Rica, I’ve been consistently teaching 8-10 classes each week. I remember when I dreamed of teaching one class a week — and now I’m teaching a whole bunch of them.

[Full disclosure: 8-10 classes is definitely not enough to live off of in NYC. I’m working on it. Right now I’m supplementing with money I have saved up]

I’m coming in on almost a year of teaching sculpt at Corepower Yoga — how insane is that? And about a month now of teaching at Y7. The two styles compliment each other, at Y7 I get to be a bit more subdued where as I’m totally amped up teaching sculpt at CPY.

Teaching yoga is amazing

I get to hang out in yoga pants all day. Sometimes in the middle of teaching, when I’m bopping around to Beyonce, I think, holy moly, I get paid to do this?

I get paid to blast fun music and lead people through movement. Not a bad gig. And there is nothing more satisfying than someone coming up to you after class to say “thank you, I needed that.” I’ve had countless moments in which my students make me want to cry happy tears with their kind comments and love.

But teaching yoga is also hard

This morning I taught a class at 6AM. I’m teaching again at tonight at 7:45PM. That’s a long ass day, even though I’m not teaching during the day in between classes.

I’m learning how to keep my stamina and energy up with my increased teaching schedule. Last week I lost my voice and ended up on steroids to help with the inflammation in my vocal cords. This week the heat wave in NYC is draining me big time, and I feel it when I’m teaching in the heated classroom.

I spend a lot of the time I’m not teaching sitting on my butt watching The Bold Type (great show, highly recommend it) because my body hurts. I drink a lot of caffeine to off-set waking up before 6AM to teach. And I say no to most evening plans because I’m teaching. Or waking up early.

I wish other people told both sides of the story

I’m super open about all of this — the good, the bad and the sometimes ugly — because I’m super open about most things. And also because I’ve been talking to friends and followers that have similar aspirations. So often we only hear about the amazing things, but it’s not all Lululemon and lavender essential oils. We don’t know the full story. Are my favorite instructors that I know are busting their ass actually making a full-time income off teaching?

I’m figuring out how to realistically make this work on the financial front without burning myself out. What I’m going to do about health insurance in the future. And how to stay on top of all this sweaty laundry. Seriously, there is SO much laundry when you teach 3 heated classes in one day.

With all that being said, I also wouldn’t trade this life I’m living right now for anything else. I pinch myself that I’m getting paid to play Beyonce in a sweaty yoga studio. And I’m finally living the dream I had in college of being a fitness instructor in NYC.