In the midst of pandemics, training, romantic interludes, and the constant hurricane deluge that occurred this week…I still have a job, you know?
That thing that’s supposed to make me money so I can keep up with the rest of the above? More or less?
Anyway, my brain never completely leaves the professional sphere. I was somewhat designed, somewhat curated, as a workaholic. I like to work. I get bored VERY easily, and I judge myself readily for not aiming high enough.
Undoubtedly, COVID has changed the nature of my work. I regularly hear of yoga studios around the country closing. The last five months have shown who is resilient in the face of drastic change, and who was just riding what was once a very manageable wave. I’m grateful my three places de employ are still facing the challenges well. But I feel the stress, too.
One of the results of this constant fight against my own pessimism is a newfound tendency to see other yoga teachers as *le gasp* competition (sorry to all my fellow yogis reading this). You’ll often hear me talk about how hard it is to come by these jobs, how unstable the market is, how flexible (literally and figuratively) you need to be, how class schedules shift, and most of all how saturated the market is.
I heard someone recently say there are not enough yoga teachers to fill the need for yoga, and maybe that’s true, but for those of us for whom this is our livelihood, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Then there’s the constant concern of injury taking you off the mat (I hurt my hand last week and was reminded how even my own body’s compliance is not a guarantee), or the added layer that the permanency of our studio employers remains by and large out of our hands.
All of that compiles to: There’s a lot of completion out there. Right? It isn’t how I want to think of it, but isn’t that right?
Is it?
I’m reminded of the scene in Hunger Games: Catching Fire (If you’ve not read or seen, just roll with it for a second) when Haymitch reminds Katniss to “remember who the enemy is.” And to be clear, that’s not to imply that ANYBODY IS ANYBODY’S ENEMY in this scenario I myself am setting up. But what I would have you and I remember is who (or what) is the actual competition.
Do you also find yourself getting icky inside when you think of other teachers or studios as your competition? Typical cutthroat business says we need to think of it that way, but I’m not 100% convinced because I’m too committed to listening to my gut; my gut says that’s not going to be productive for me as a provider of wellness.
That’s in fact a recipe for sleepless nights (I know from experience).
Look. The competition is fierce. But it also isn’t always readily recognizable. What are we really up against as yoga teachers? Do we trust the process and our own professional and personal integrity and investment in ourselves and our craft to take us into the next step? Or do we just say we do, when in REALITY we trust our ability to hold on tightly and not let go of something, our own resume and ego, and in a pinch our ability to cut the competition out from underneath us?
Because a lot of times I see the latter, and I see it in myself sometimes too.
2020 did not change the essential nature of our jobs; karma is still karma, COVID or no COVID. That shit still will not fly.
I would remind us all to recall the competition we have in common. Together, we have always been and will continue to be working to fight complacency, damaging choices, inequity, inaccessibility, hurtful beliefs, and ignorance.
Fight those first; they’ll keep us busy.
Fighting among ourselves is not a luxury to be afforded just because it’s a weird, weird world right now.
So have professional integrity. Maintain your credentials. Polish your resume. Take a new job, and when there aren’t any, put your classes online to an audience of ??? because that’s how a lot of online yoga is.
But don’t forget, in the middle of the changes and the stress, what the real competition is. What we fight in common. But also, on a deeper level, what we wrestle with inside of ourselves.
Good luck with it all.
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