What is it like to be a yoga teacher, really?

What is it like to be a yoga teacher, really?

I actually think for any teacher genuinely trying to follow a yoga path, there is a huge misconception around what this is.

It is also believe it is the teacher’s responsibility to guide the students and the community to understand more.

Teachers pay a lot of money to train.

I know a person currently who will make the most beautiful yoga teacher, as they have the kindest heart. They work super hard in their current job and have been saving up hard to go and do their training and follow a path of something that is deeply ingrained in them to do, divinely guided I would say in these circumstances. £3,000 for the initial basic training is what this young person has been quoted. The basic training does not equip you sufficiently for what may come up during your time as a teacher.

Now, depending on where you are financially, you might think, oh £3k, that’s not bad, but if you are earning minimum wage, that’s a hell of a lot.

It doesn’t stop there though.

Becoming a yoga teacher was actually never part of my plan at all. I certainly never thought that by 2026 I would have moved to my own small independent yoga studio with a beautiful team and amazing community. I had absolutely no idea life would have taken me in this direction, but it has, and with it comes a huge responsibility. Some would say that it is not all yours to hold, but I disagree.

Some would say protect your energy, keep your distance professionally from clients, don’t get involved in people’s trauma, grief, transitions, fears, worries, but if you are a sensitive person with a big heart, how can you not?

I had a conversation with a very caring and lovely man yesterday, a boss of a big company I know, he is very entrepreneurial, full of ideas, kind-hearted and genuinely cares about his staff and how his business is run. He is a good man.

It’s nothing to do with yoga, but he constantly digs into himself. He asks his staff to go out and have a meeting without him and be honest about how he is performing as a boss. He actually says, I only want to work with people that will tell me the truth, and excuse the language if you don’t like swearing, but we are in the real world here. I am personally very sweary. It’s a great release.

He actually said he wants to employ people who are honest and will tell him to fuck off. What he is saying in that, obviously, is that he doesn’t want to work with those who fawn and smile, walk away and then behind his back call him a Dick!

Sorry, not sorry for the swearing in this blog!

Both of these humans I am talking about are males and relatively new males in my life. Both of them I respect immensely for how they conduct themselves. Both I have learned a lot from.

That is my point here: we are always learning, and if we think we are always right and we know it all, that is a great mistake.

Being in the same routine and loop day in and day out can make us feel stuck. The people who inspire me are the ones who are not afraid to make the changes and who have pivoted maybe more than once in their lives. Big, fearless life changes that are brave.

It is not for everyone to make bold and brave decisions, and I guess it all comes down to what karmic loops and patterns, what layers you are willing to shed in this lifetime.

As a yoga teacher, my own personal journey has been trying to break through my own self-limiting beliefs, and my goodness, I have had a ton of them.

Running a small yoga business, or any business, highlights all of your own stuff you have never dealt with. You notice your own patterns and loops, triggers and where your kindness and compassion runs short at times.

Mine has been truly tested in many ways since the start of the year for a number of reasons by a number of people.

I am an Aquarius, and whether you believe in your star signs or not, I would say my character traits are spot on to that sign. I don’t like following the crowd, I don’t enjoy being told what to do, I definitely don’t like any form of controlling behaviour, I value my freedom and fiercely protect my independence, I am full of ideas, I like an abundant amount of time to myself in solitude to restore my energy away from everyone, but I also crave deep, meaningful connection and like to be seen and heard.

If I like you, you cannot shut me up. If I am not so sure of you, well, maybe the chat won’t last too long!

We can’t be friends with everyone, and my circle, despite what it might look like on Instagram, is small, private, loyal, trusted, kind and we laugh a lot.

It is a privilege to be able to afford to go on yoga teacher trainings. It is a privilege to get to a point where people pay to receive yoga classes.

It is our responsibility as teachers to honour the roots of this wonderful, inspirational and transformative practice and to share the philosophy and more if the student is ready to hear that.

We are not here to force our thoughts onto you, we are here as a mirror for you to find what resonates in your own lives and explore your own transformation.

This week I had two new men join the group. I have had lovely conversations with them both. The same types of conversations repeatedly come up as we all navigate the same hurdles in life, but they are just uniquely packaged, tailored by the universe for each of us to climb over, push through or get stuck in we get to choose the outcome.

The first gentleman has recently retired. Transition, any form of transition, is one of the hardest things to work through.

So much identity is caught up in our work. Some of us can do the same job for 50 years or more, and it is part of us. Leaving anything like that, no matter how many years, is immense, and huge compassion, self-love and kindness is needed when going through these times.

Thing is, we have never been taught how, to operate with those softer self caring values at heart. Most of us only know to push through and keep going.

Especially as a man, to show any vulnerability in your life, to be lost or uncertain, confused as to what is next, there seems to be very little space for that in society at all.

Us women are very fortunate in that we chatter loads to our friends. We always have the counsel of other women around us. It has always been a way we could find a way through.

A good friend is priceless. You only need 1 !

Many men still struggle with communication, with opening up, with really being vulnerable about how hard it can be to hold it all.

I know what you might be thinking: why are you an advocate for men, Clare? Women have had it pretty rough over the years, and we really have. The tides are shifting now, though.

I know I often talk about this, but working with all men, bar a handful of women, for 17 years in the police gave me an incredible insight into how men push through and find it super challenging to truly, honestly express their feelings.

In the Met, we would often lose court cases as male officers’ notes would not express any fear around the level of threat or danger we faced. It was just the facts they presented. I never heard a male officer once say, I feared for my life. I felt scared. I did on plenty of occasions and wrote it down in my evidence too.

You tell me that a male officer who had a knife held to him wouldn’t have felt fear in that situation, and yet it would never, ever be communicated.

I really hope this dialogue can change. I love nothing more than an emotionally intelligent conversation with a man who tells me they are struggling. To me, that is the most courageous act of bravery.

I guess my own marriage failed as my husband has crippling high-functioning anxiety, and underneath it he has the biggest, kindest heart.

The anxiety was masked for years by being a CEO of his own highly successful insurance brokerage in London. On the surface, to anyone who didn’t know him, he looked like the happiest, bubbly, most confident man, and in places he was and he is.

He was genuinely struggling so much during these years, but no one saw it.

The masks we wear to achieve in this life are huge.

On leaving his career and selling his company, that transition period was the hardest time for him. A loss of self, identity, no one to boss. It took its toll on him, us and our marriage.

We became very unhealthy as a dynamic and it had to end for both of us to move forward. I can go on for ages about trying to get him help and getting him to come to yoga and all the things I did.

Truthfully, I gave up on him because I couldn’t see him making any changes, he had lost all of his joy for life, we had lost all of our love for each other, although there will always be some there on my part.

I forgive him for his behaviour. He was really unwell.

I also forgive myself for leaving. I chose myself for the first time in many years. I am vowing to take that forward.

I am having dinner with him next month and hope to put some peace between us.

This is why I am so passionate about us having a mixed community and men on the mats in our space.

This dialogue around toxic masculinity makes me angry. There is so much underneath everyone’s behaviour, and no, I do not condone any form of abuse at all.

Some people just need some deep-rooted help and therapy. Some will take that path and some won’t.

Male or female, we get to choose what we work on and dig into in this life, and if anyone thinks having therapy or counselling or working on themselves is easy, it’s not. It’s brutal.

There can be transformation on the other side.

So, as many of you know, my own personal journey has been very much a healing path, my own self journey has been a bumpy ride. I still work with a counsellor now and probably always will when I need to.

As a teacher of yoga and from my own path, I can tell pretty soon in a relatively short chat where you are at, how you are talking to yourself, and if you are looking after yourself well or not.

Most people come to yoga because they are going through some stuff. It’s life. There will always be stuff. It is inevitable. Suffering is part of life.

Acceptance of that is a huge part. We are not going to be happy all the time. That is a fleeting emotion.

Yoga can help you find contentment and joy again though.

So, what am I saying in this lengthy old blog?

We all struggle, we all have our stuff. Yoga teachers get told some really personal details often I keep what I am told confidential, locked down in the vault.

This is not a trained part of the course, and this can be exhausting for those who teach. Some teachers are great at being detached from this. I am not. I genuinely feel people’s pain and have compassion for it.

It is why you will find I take regular breaks in complete solitude to restore and process my own stuff. To ensure I remain a safe and stable space to lead a yoga studio with a good and open heart.

Yoga is not just the poses. It is meant to help you transform your life, but in order to honestly do that, you are going to seriously break some eggs along the way.

Your teachers won’t fix you. No amount of retreats, chanting, ayahuasca or cacao ceremonies are ever going to fix you.

Only you can stay curious, notice where you feel out of alignment and stay curious about that.

As a yoga teacher, we can only be a mirror for you to find your own path. We don’t get it right all the time, there are days when your disregulated, impatient emails really cheese me off, we don’t have it all figured out. We are only humans navigating all the messiness alongside you.

We don’t get a secret pass to all the answers, but we do know the practice regulates the nervous system, calms the fluctuations of the mind, peels back the layers and can transform you.

A true yoga journey is meant to stir you up. Once it is stirred, stay curious around that!

If you are reading this thinking it’s just a lovely exercise class and I get to see my mates, then crack on with that too for now!

Take what you need and leave what you don’t.

I will do my best, to my ability, to teach in the way I have been taught and know that for me it really is about overcoming our own self-limiting beliefs.

You are unique, thank goodness!

You are loved, you are always held, there is nothing to fix at the core. You are pure universal consciousness. You are always connected to source.

It is the best part of my life yet teaching yoga and running I am the storm I love it and there are really challenging days but it makes me so happy to see, humans connect, find genuine friendship and laughter. It is beautiful to watch personal transformation , lives and chapters unfold !

Life is good and community here is beautiful.

It is for you to uncover your own magical and divinely guided journey, should you choose to.

A good book for any of our male community navigating any transition right now is From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks. Maybe for the wives or partners of the men to read too !

Thanks for taking the time to read my scribble I am off to the beach with the dogs

Happy weekend everyone

Love

Clare x