I'm in a Spring Break State of Mind

Today I decided that Spring Break is a state of mind. (I probably decided this since I don’t actually get a real spring break). Back in my high school and college days, Spring Break served as the perfect time to mentally and physically get away from stress, and schoolwork, and often times snow…. And it came at the perfect time when brains were feeling overloaded, and mental capacities were dwindling… (hello, that doesn’t exactly stop when you leave school…. So its kinda a cruel joke that Spring break does…) But I am taking the opportunity this week to give myself a little bit of a mental break, and get out of my routine a bit.

Lately I have been feeling completely uninspired in my yoga practice. It’s a little hard to actually say that out loud, because as a yoga teacher, you want to be able to help and inspire your students! But lately I have been in this huge rut, with my personal yoga practice, as well as with my teaching (at least it feels that way to me) of course as a teacher, I have my tricks… classes written out from when I first started teaching, the perfect go to poses, that everyone loves, and are accessible for just about everyone… And thankfully in the world of yoga, I find that students often like repetition. They enjoy being able to predict where to go next, and what is coming… And I know that I am my own worst critic, and the students I have are not going around saying “that class was really similar to last week”. And it works… but mentally, I’m hitting a wall.  As a writer, I am all too familiar with writers block. But thankfully I do not depending on my writing to pay the bills (at least not yet) so I at least have a little flexibility. If I’m not inspired, then I just don’t write that day… there is no pressing deadline, nothing is riding on it… but teaching is different. I do have 4 classes a week, with students who are showing up, expecting me to guide them through a yoga practice… inspired or not, the classes are going to happen, and I need to be ready for that! And its not for a lack of trying… I have been involved in some incredibly wonderful community building, totally inspiring yoga practices over the past few weeks! And yet, I’m totally having trouble taking in the wonderful, and replicating it in my everyday classes.

And then comes in the constructive criticism, which as a teacher I totally welcome, at least in theory. How else am I supposed to know what I can improve on, what would make the class better, what would make more students comfortable? But it’s really easy, especially when you are feeling in a rut to let the constructive criticism meld into destructive criticism… and it can be a little bit of a downward spiral… But not today.

Today I am embracing the Spring Break State Of Mind. Today I am leaving behind everything that doesn’t serve me, and taking with me what does. I am feeling dedicated to taking more classes, getting new ideas, and letting it translate into my teaching. I am recovering from an illness, and getting inspired to get back on track with eating healthy, and living in the present. I am taking a break from stress and routine, and mixing things up a little bit.  Yes, I don’t get a break from work (but really I have a very flexible schedule, and I often work from home) but my boss is on spring break, so if that means I need to take a few extra minutes in the morning to center myself, and meditate, I’m going to. If it means leaving work a few minutes early to make sure I get to my favorite 5:30 class, I’m going to. I’m going to look for inspiration in the everyday, and trying to focus more on the present. And hopefully I can pass that on to my students.