I don’t even know where to begin. This week was exhilarating and exhausting. I taught more yoga classes in a single week than I ever have since I started teaching. In an average week I teach around 10 classes. I would say my sweet spot is 7-8. This week I taught 14. For some of my peers, teaching 14 in a week is the norm but for me it’s a lot.

Many of you have asked if I practice with my classes…I do not. I keep my personal practice separate from teaching. It doesn’t help them for me to be going through the practice myself and not in tune with what they’re doing on their mats. Rather than practice with them, I walk around the room and watch my students practice so that I can see how they are moving through the practice, verbally cue them through the class and offer hands-on assists. So while I don’t physically go through the practice with them, I do energetically.

Teaching yoga is a very energy-centric thing. The students feel my energy, I feel their energy. There is an exchange of energy among everyone in the room. I give them my energy and I pick up a lot of theirs…good and bad, light and heavy. After I had been teaching for a few years, I gave up on planning my classes before going in to teach because half the time whatever I planned wasn’t the right thing for the room on that day. I can’t really explain it, there is a lot of intuition involved. It’s all boils down to being there for your student’s needs and not your own.

This is why it’s so important for teachers to be super protective of and responsible for their energy. I set my intention going into class on creating a safe and uplifting space for my students to explore, breathe, grow, feel whatever they need to feel, etc. From a personal perspective, I commit myself to teaching from wherever I am on that day, knowing that my students will connect more with my energy and to the practice when I am open and authentic. This has taken me years of work to even begin to feel comfortable doing but all I know is when you’re standing in front of your students and “acting” the part of a yoga teacher, it feels even more uncomfortable.

This morning I walked in to teach my 9 a.m. Sunday class…my 14th and final class of the week. My expectation at the beginning of the week was that I would feel run down and tired of teaching by this point, but it was exactly the opposite. I walked in and felt more comfortable and excited to teach than ever. Teaching so much this week forced a surrender inside of me to show up, take off the mask and really be in it with my students. Over the course of the week I taught nearly 400 yogis at three different studios and spent over 20 hours in 100+ degree rooms between teaching and taking…and I’ve never felt so connected as a teacher.

I continue to be amazed that every time I think I’ve gotten to the pinnacle of teaching and “oh my god it can’t get any better than this,” it gets even better. And I’m only four years in as a yoga teacher. I can’t wait to see where it goes and how I grow from here. I am so very grateful for the opportunity to teach yoga.

So, here is my playlist for this weekend’s classes.

And here is a quick summary of my workouts for the week. I typed this part before writing the yoga and energy stuff and now the workouts don’t really even seem relevant but I’ll include them anyway.

Monday

5.5 mile run

I ran 2.5 miles to the yoga studio to teach my 5:45 p.m. class, sweated my booty off teaching and then ran another 3 miles home. It was quite a workout!

Tuesday

Hot yoga + lift upper body

I stayed and took 45 minutes of a yoga class after I taught in the morning and then stayed after training a client at the gym later that evening to do a quick upper body lift. I can’t even remember exactly what I did now but a mix of bench press, single arm rows, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, lat pull downs and a few other miscellaneous things.

Wednesday

3 mile run

Thursday

Hot yoga

Friday

Hot yoga + CrossFit/Strength

I took a hot yoga class in the AM before teaching and then went to the gym Friday afternoon to get a much-needed CrossFit WOD and strength session in.

5 rounds for time:

7 deadlifts
9 toes to bar
12 box jumps

I did the deadlifts at 125# and RX’d the toes to bar. Finished in about 13 minutes.

4 rounds:

10 front lunges holding 25# plate overhead (each leg)
10 kettlebell swings10 ab wheel roll outs
1 sled push down and back with 150# sled
10 push ups

I was pretty sweaty and wiped out after this one. Felt really good!

Saturday

3 mile run

Sunday

3 mile run + hot yoga

And with that, I’m off to hydrate (so much sweating this week) and tackle Sunday stuff like laundry and cleaning.

Have a beautiful week. So much love. <3