When you are in an intensive Yoga Teacher Training working on and working every day for a month, you will explore a lot of things with regards to Yoga.
Starting from the alignment of the postures, adjustments, teaching techniques, how to sequence a Yoga Class, Yoga Philosophy and of course, some chanting of Asanas and Mantras.
You feel alive, happy, and seems like you can do a lot more than you thought you could.
Beautiful.
Yet, once you are back home and start your job or even start teaching Yoga, the real world expects you to do a lot more things apart from teaching and practising Yoga.
If you are working in front of computers, you feel just to get up and practice but you can’t.
Even if you take a Yoga Teacher’s job assuming that life will be all about teaching and practising Yoga, it might not be the same.
Most of the Yoga teachers and practitioners have been facing often this hurdle on how to keep our Yoga practice regular.
The students would think that you can do a lot of postures, be super fit, and have a regular practice.
But in the reality, you might have been juggling and trying to find the right balance of teaching and practising.
This was also a question of a few students from the Samyak Yoga Family and here are the key things you might like to implement in your practice.
1. Get up early in the morning
This is the Golden Key. There is no other alternative. Once you get into the daily life of the day, it will be a hard job to come back on the mat and practice. this is applicable even for Yoga teachers.
You might have to take classes after classes or sometimes you will have some meetings or other things to do in the evenings. Make sure that you get up early in the morning.
2. Stick to the same practice time, no matter what
I know it’s easy to say and hard to do. But stick yourself to a time early in the morning and make sure that you won’t compromise anything for that time.
Treat that time as a gift to yourself that can’t be taken by anyone for anything.
A specific time for the practice every day has the ability to bring a lot into the practice on and off the mat in life.
3. Prepare the practice sequence of the month
If you have been an Ashtanga Yoga practitioner, you can keep the Ashtanga Primary Series practice for six days or Five days while focusing Sunday for Sun-Salutations!
But you can also keep three days of Ashtanga Primary Series, two days for other postures (preparation for the Primary Series Practice, such as Back-bends, Balancing, and Hip-opening) while Sunday can be dedicated for Sun-Salutations.
As usual, Saturday can be treated as Meditation day!
If you are a Hatha Yoga practitioner, you can create a sequence of the month. Make sure that you have a good set of easy, intermediate, and advanced poses.
This sequence, in general, can be a foundation for next month’s sequence too.
You can also make two sequences that you will practice every three-four times a week.
The same can be applied to Pranayama and Meditation.
Keep a diary of your practice and try to put the progress into words. I know all these needs again more time to work on, but that’s how life is.
4. Take classes from other teachers
Go to the nearest Yoga studios to take classes from other teachers. It gives an opportunity to understand and progress in teaching and can also make you humble.
It helps you as a teacher and as a practitioner too. You can also take the classes from other teachers in the same studio in which you work as a Yoga Teacher.
5. Invite practitioners for self-practice together
Once in a while, invite your students, or teachers, practitioners for the self-practice. It can also be the Mysore style of Ashtanga practice or a set of postures crafted by each one of you.
All can sit together to prepare a class module and practice together like a Mysore style.
It brings more creativity into the class sequencing and you will be able to get more inspiration, practice at the same time.
Regular Practice can definitely do wonders. Be patient and work every day no matter what.