Why Teach Yoga? Finding Your Spark as a Teacher with Byron de Marsé

0:00 What starts the fire of a yoga teacher to? First of all, take a training And then maybe what's the reason why someone would be excited to teach after a training? Welcome to the going pro yoga podcast. If you love yoga as much as I do, then this podcast is for you. We talk all things yoga related for teachers in order to supplement and complement and even support after a 200 our yoga teacher training.

0:32 Or if you've never done a training before this podcast is all about just learning more about yoga in an authentic way together with Paul t0 do in Byron de Marseille, we put together this podcast to provide you with a free resource to learn more about yoga, whether you want to share yoga, or teach yoga or just practice yoga. This podcast is Talking all things, you have a related and we try to talk from the teachers perspective and also the students perspective, to make

0:56 sure we get a full 360 degree, angle on what yoga is all about and how its evolved in the modern world. Welcome to our podcast. Yo, welcome to the going pro yoga podcast. We are really excited today. Are we Michael? I'm very excited why I'm eating green soup. Yeah, still wonder.

1:14 Why are we just went over our top 10 Ubud or actually Bali or we did say, boo, boo dressed. Yeah, we just went over the top 10. If you do not live in Bali, the restaurants here are incredible. Don't you think so? Yeah, they're so good. I like never want to cook because the restaurants basically do better than me.

1:34 What do you like about them? They're super healthy and they're also super tasty, and they're also super affordable. Yeah, that's that's he now that man. Yep, so this is not a sponsored ad but we won million percent. I mean I got to say something to I lost a speaking kg now by the way, for any Americans, but I lost about Eight kilos naturally, I'm not exaggerating eight.

2:02 Could be even more naturally without changing any lifestyle. I mean, sure, my lifestyle changed a little bit, but not just because I moved from the states to Bali, and it seemed to be like an inflammation thing for me, which is weird.

2:18 Because all weird, because food is full of inflammation, especially American food. Yeah, the way I viewed few, I have viewed food. Viewed food is It's changed, its changed a lot the in and actually owned a nutrition business just to put some some, you know, respect all my name, if you know what I mean. So I had an interest in that field but then Bali just seems like you know what you don't know shit. In fact I everything you knew is reversed. It needs to be reversed we so

2:51 yeah. And I'm not saying I know it all still, I'm still open to learning but seems to be digestion stomach health. Gut health. Let's call it. Not just probiotics but you know how quickly you get rid of something that you've eaten, how long does it stay in your system fruit natural sugar detox type of dye? What is detox?

3:19 How do you get your system to be like in a detoxification mode? What are the costs of that? You know, like you might get skinny? You know, you might have to give up a few things not so much about what you're putting into your body. It's about what?

3:34 What you're not putting into your body. Oh, that makes sense. Totally, yeah. It makes me think of the different curriculums that people are always saying, like how people in school should learn, you know, about money, and how to manage money, and they should learn about emotional intelligence and mental health. And they should learn about Certain things that are not like math science and whatever, they're just saying there's other skills that the youth

3:58 should learn growing up. And I think, I mean, yeah, they learn about biology. I'm sure the digestive system, but maybe it needs to be more emphasized because they home economics just so fundamental. Like, nobody people just don't know about how the gut connects so strongly to everything.

4:18 It's like, if they consider their brain important, they should consider their gut. Almost just as important as our gut is, what fuels your brain. So your brain, you know, if you're trying to protect your brain, you need to protect your brain through your gut. Bucky little make that connection. Yeah, it for people to actually like listen more seriously to this.

4:38 They have to like have had an experience with it. Exactly 32 be a Tipping Point. Yeah, for sure. Otherwise, it's just like, oh, these are two guys think they know what they're talking about, but I meet my protein right now.

4:48 I'm feed my muscle, which is great. I feed my muscles to with protein, but to understand how the system works. Isn't like a machine that needs x amount of protein every single day. Yeah, you know, in fact, you might need to go starve.

5:03 It of protein for a little bit too depending on what your objectives are. Anyways, van dough. So that was a that was an intro to a podcast that we're not going to talk about but it was cool. Yeah, that's cool. But you did get a message from someone who is now a recent listener who was a yoga teacher?

5:22 Or she still is a yoga teacher. Oh yeah. But she hasn't been teaching for some time. Well you want to tell a story instead of me trying to guess it? I mean it's really not a story. It's The Story Goes Like This. Byron comes over to Michael's house. Michael says what do you want to talk about in the podcast and I say, Say I don't know.

5:38 Should we talk about something that we are really interested in and we like talking about or something that we think other people would like to listen to and somehow we landed on the topic of How To Be Inspired? What are we going to call it?

5:54 How'd inspired order to get re-inspire. Yeah. How does re-spark your how to reignite your spark as a yoga teacher or how to find inspiration to teach yoga again? Because I'm sure there's people that have done, you good teacher trainings and, you know, got certified and they went through the process and they maybe didn't teach right away, or maybe they did, and maybe they took a break. I'll hide this for whatever reason, for a couple of years, maybe many years and then

6:20 they're just like, you know what, maybe I want to get back into that again. And but it's kind of like it's been so much time since that. It's like how do you get the engine's going here? Yeah, yep. And like that reignite the spark when then the passion the drive to teach yoga or to reteach like you were teaching covid app and or something sets you back. In this case, a friend of mine reached out and she has an injury that is set her back.

6:47 It was an ACL tear. And she mentioned listening to this podcast and kind of trying to find some inspiration again to get back in the mindset. The heart set, the, the full set of being able to be aligned as a teacher. Because yeah, I'm sure just imagining that situation.

7:09 Your imagination is going to run wild. What's it like to get back into the, into the routine life? There's a lot of to love about it, and there's a lot to not love about it. Depending on where your mind wants to go in the hustle and like, trying to, to like climb whatever imaginary circumstances, you think, you need to climb to get, where you need to be, basically, to make the amount of money you need to make.

7:33 So How do we enter this more? So the rig reigniting Wellsburg I think about what starts the fire of a yoga teacher to. First of all, take a training And then maybe what's the reason why someone would be? Excited to teach after a training. So let's talk about the first one first one. Why would someone want to do a teacher yoga teacher training in the first place?

8:06 Probably, because they, well, I don't want to assume everyone is the case, but I imagine that they've been exposed to yoga and they had some sort of experience with yoga that allowed them to feel a certain way. Maybe it allowed them to feel physically better stronger more lined, less pain, who knows?

8:23 Or maybe it allowed for some mental alignment or stability as well, either way. It probably served something for them that inspired them to say. Maybe I'll do a yoga teacher training. I'm sure there's other reasons as well but let's just say generally that's probably a good reason so to re-spark a to reignite that Again, I'm not sure what the exact answer is but that's one of the things that comes to mind. So in summary, say that in a second one I'm named on the second one.

8:52 Yeah, I know. So the second one is thinking about when people do a teacher training, Right. After they do teacher training, they are hyped. The the spark is fire, you're sure generally and what started that obviously the exposure, the friendships the connections and all that stuff. So I would say those are two great places to think about to start with like depending on who L who the person is. How do you refine your own personal inspiration? Your own personal spark like,

9:22 well, where did the spark begin in the first place? Was it? A story or something that happened to you, that you had some issues and you started yoga, like maybe bringing that back into play. Yeah, and I reminds me of the other part about this, how this came up and that's you know, the practice being able to practice is usually what inspires people to want to teach it.

9:43 And having that experience, whether it's unfolding within your own life and system, and you feel more liberated and more loving and all your relationships or fitting or you just love the class experience of the dynamic. Can you visualize yourself as a teacher leading these experiences and you're thinking, I got to do something with my life? Why not do this?

10:08 But an injury is going to set you back where you can't practice possibly in the same ways that you might have fallen in love with it and that's what she was mentioning actually. Okay, so that's what reminds me of Okay. Look, prior what's the priority? Or I'm just thinking about Know what comes to mind is? Mental health, like taking care of your mental health. Like, how do you do that?

10:37 First yoga is always been a big part of my mental health, but it's not the only thing. How I've got plenty of other ways to especially, like, hit the gym, get a little cardio meditation. Something that is occupying, my time. That's good for me, is ultimately what it is. You know, even a podcast could be considered this, you know? So yeah, keeping your mental health sharp that way, you don't spiral into some Loop, that's just not even a real loop. It's just an illusion that

11:14 you're creating the self-sabotaging type of mindset. And then you can honestly like sift through like the truth easier. Like, should I actually be doing this for for a living? Like do I want it? Is this my ego? If it is my you go, is it the healthier part of my legal case? Maybe it's okay.

11:32 Like I believe the egos is a beautiful thing. To know that I am here and like be aware of the of that is like that's essentially like your ego. It's your sense of like, importance in the world. Anyway. And so like to not have an ego and teach yoga that sounds like a computer might be doing that.

12:01 Okay. A different W, different thing. sober for the injury because it's kind of how it came up and you said two While one of the things you said, I could set a lot of things. So I just kind of want to reiterate a little bit talking about the practice.

12:17 So the actual yoga itself, like, getting back to the practice is a good way of, you know, Reese parking, whatever that may be. So if you want to teach yoga, I would assume that practicing yoga is probably a first step, maybe it's an obvious one, but we should probably mention anyway, right?

12:33 If you do want to teach, like, definitely should be practicing probably on a regular basis for your own well-being, to Center yourself, to find that alignment, or whatever it is. And then, maybe from there, you'll have that Ready to decide whether it is a yes or no to pursue that.

12:48 And then the other thing you said is if there's an injury possibly, that's stunting your motivation or inspiration to actually practice yoga and you're kind of on the fence, like, you know, my ACL injury or some sort of injuries, you know, impeding on this. The like my practice is going to be a different I mean to me the the lessons that come up are very yogic actually and this case it would be You know, acceptance or letting go and possibly finding a new.

13:17 So if it's like, if your practice was super bendy and arm balancing, all this crazy stuff before and you know, you have an injury now and it's like, what you can still practice yoga, anybody can practice yoga, right? The ultimate yoga. So it's just a matter of modifying, to be able to get to the next stage.

13:34 Possibly. Well, and I can relate strongly to this and even more specifically because I tore my ACL a Month before during the teacher training in 2020 with you and Paul trick. And I was like gutted because I was like, oh my God, I'm the training is going to be a waste of time. Whatever my brain made up that story in my head, but then I was like, or I could actually just really try to rehabilitate my knee throughout the training and use this as a practice to like build resilience and see what

14:03 happens afterwards and like, yeah, I couldn't do a lot of stuff in the training and it was like different difficult. It was frustrating and I had to modify everything and I was sitting on like three bolsters because I can barely Flex my knee. I remember him putting pressure on it and stuff like that and I mean, I remember the emotion of that Time was very like this sucks but like I'm going to do it anyway and like, hopefully it'll get better and obviously

14:27 it's two years later but it didn't take that long months later. You know, all the sudden my practice is improving. I was reducing 3, bolsters to to bolsters and then to both. There's the one bolster and all of a sudden I was building strength and stability in my legs that it made me feel like, okay, I don't have that ecl anymore, but I can still practice yoga, right?

14:44 Because yoga is a pretty low impact or can be low impact activity that if you Do it, slow enough and consciously enough, which is kind of the idea. Then you probably will be pretty safe even if you do have an injury. Yeah. Yeah.

14:59 Once you develop a certain about of awareness, that's very true. I would, I would say it. Sounds like you had a really humbling experience, having gone through that and gone through a white tea tea. And to be sitting here today, talking about yoga for thousands of the listen to, you know.

15:18 So I would say that's accessible, What comes to mind for me as you were speaking about your injury. I just gotta, I gotta fess up here. I gotta fess up, you know, I have, and I've talked about this, but like, my spine has had some pretty bad injuries.

15:37 It is had a lot of emotional stories behind it as you can tell, as I start to talk about it, I'm just like, oh gosh, here we go. Again, let's talk about my poor back as a yoga teacher and this whole story I have, which Each.

15:52 Yeah, I think it'll be helpful to share this. So, Going into yoga. I had already hurt my back many times, okay, whatever different ways. I've heard it traumatic lifting concrete, you know, one time carrying Carpet, One time, playing basketball one time, playing football. One time sitting down in a car aggressively in hard one time hiking and just taking a step.

16:18 I mean, it just started becoming random injuries. I had a question. What is sitting down in a car? Intense itís hard Ozona visualize what that is? Okay, that's a whole other story. But I basically was like, having a power T moment, a pouty moment where I pour me in l.a. started to rain.

16:38 I think I had an audition. I was late for that audition. I have a Jetta. My life just is a my have a Jetta, you know? And I'm I go to my car and the car batteries dead, and I was very angry. So I had a pouty moment where I just like my battery's dead and I kind of throw a little fit in the rain.

16:57 And then I sit down in my car which is kind of low. And as I sit down aggressively in My Cry artist dude, I snap something in my back. You know the ripe age of twenty. Five or six. I don't know. Right. So I'm just yeah one of the many contributions to what became the story of my back.

17:17 The pitiful, sad story of Byron's sky, thank you for that visual is very helpful, you're welcome. So I get into yoga. Yoga is a very low impact, but difficult practice. I'm think I'm in love immediately. I did hurt myself in yoga a couple of times, but at the rate that I was hurting myself, it was less. So I was like, this is a win.

17:40 And yeah, long story. Not so short is that I became a yoga teacher at some point, during all this, and I still have back pain. I still had yoga was a way for me to cope and deal with the back pain in a much healthier way than I was when I formerly used to sit really hard.

18:02 Aggressively you do. Now, I just go to a yoga class or maybe not doing yoga would be the answer to tell you the truth. That honestly honest to God. Truth was that I needed to not do yoga sometimes for several days in a row, physical Asana yoga and I needed to find different ways to still get that feeling like I did a really sweaty Vinyasa class. I needed that feeling that feeling is really what it was that Clarity that buzz or that.

18:31 Hi, realization or just this, the lens shifting and changing and seeing what the life in a more peaceful way joyful. So, all of that being said, I've had times as a yoga teacher where I was like lying down on my back, almost reclining in my car, just driving to the studio because I couldn't sit up straight. I could stand and walk around a classroom teaching yoga, but I couldn't sit in the car to get there. So I would lay down and drive a long ways. There's just a give you a

19:07 picture of visual like an example of like, I went through many years of occasionally, having to do things like that to, you know, basically get through the teaching. So, now, I just want to give you a fast forward Into the Now lifestyle. My back is great, my diet.

19:24 It turned out to be the biggest this ties into the beginning of page. It actually trying to turn ties into the diet. That's what lowered my inflammation and my pain. So now I don't have pain like that, ever knock on wood. And my yoga practice is way better. It's like, I couldn't believe how good it got when I got so much lighter effortless.

19:46 I should say, not so good, and the amount that I sweat is way less. It's just everything kind of shifted and changed at some point. As I was a yogurt, Teacher. So yeah, just wanted to give you all that that peek into that, it makes you think about the life style of yoga, that's the answer, that's the Tipping Point, the life style of yoga falling in love with that, That is a huge part of continuing the passion and I know the rat race and that stuff isn't fun. But for me, it kind of was fun

20:16 because I've really viewed myself as having a unique offering that wasn't just blending in with every other yoga teacher for me. I believed it and that was enough. As long as I believed it. I felt like this could be a lot of fun, just jump back into that game. you're different, you're unique, you're not one of a bunch of people and I think, you know, the lifestyle of teaching, a class or two, or maybe what's a lot of work, three classes in a day. Okay, do that five times a week.

20:51 That's 15 classes a week. Let's say option two is. Go get some job that you're working like 60 hours a week. Maybe making really good money. Okay. So if I put those two up against each other any day of the week, I'm going to take the thing that I love doing for less hours, you know? So that's my, I just went through my whole personal break down just to get anybody in sight, maybe they can overlay, you know, my story over the framework of their story and just see where there's some

21:25 similarities or if there are any right. Anyways, what came up for you, what do you think about the all that? Yeah, I took a couple notes. Yeah, saw that. So that I can make sure to listen and stay receptive but also not lose what I wanted to.

21:40 To bring back up. Yeah, that's guys the receptivity. So I mean the obvious thing is you want to find a reason to teach again or to get back into it, right? Seems kind of obvious like, obviously I'm trying to find that reason but like You know, just give it a little bit of a label like what would be the reason for you to want to do it? Like what was the reason initially? Like that's why I brought up that. Why did you practice yoga in the first place? Why did you do a teacher

22:06 training? What did you feel after doing the teacher training that made you inspired to teach originally, or whatever the scenario is for you. So that reason could be a feeling, it could be a connection to yourself that you experience.

22:18 It could be connection to others after the training. It could be, you know, a healing that you felt not a feeling but healing that you fell because of an injury afterwards. Like what is the reason that yoga would be as something that you would strive for? If it's something that you want to find inspiration to go back into and that means that there's a reason whether your Consciousness the conscious of it or not for you to be able to say yes, I want to do that so

22:40 don't make it so dormant like literally write it out. Like what is the reason why I want to do yoga? What is the reason why I want to teach you how to get again? So that's the first thing that seems really obvious but also like practical like yeah. What's the reason?

22:53 Write it down. Say it out loud. It's, you know, how important is it to you? Which is the next thing. What's important to you is teaching yoga important to you, is, you know, the yoga lifestyle important to you, is the benefits, the lessons.

23:07 The philosophies of yoga is that important, too, because if that's important to you, that's another tick of, let's just say a spark to possibly reignite a little bit more of that love that once was, let's just say for yoga.

23:22 And the other thing that came up was the blocks and the barriers that would stop you from being able to possibly Find Clarity into saying, yes, or the blocks and Clarity blocks are barriers into, you know, whether they're physical.

23:39 So we kind of talked about the injuries like, oh, I've been injury so, you know, I should know, either practice or teach because it could get worse or whenever, or than you have those mental barriers of, you know, some sort of belief that came up or maybe there's some Logistics that where you live and it's not easy for you to teach or to practice because it's not as accessible or financially. It's It's, you know, it's a little bit more challenging because now I'm starting to

24:03 think, well, if I do the yoga teaching thing again, that I'm not going to have as much money. So like, do I teach the 60 hours or eight? Do I teach the three classes a day? And it's like, well, again, what's most important to you is it more important for you to have a six-figure job and working 60 hours a week.

24:19 Or let's just say the money is more important than the the hours. Yeah, I'm sure. But like if you got to get both you know you can't have your cake and eat it too. This is why it's always tricky. To, you know, like if you look, if you, if you look around at all the yoga teachers, even the ones that are that you really like, they're not all the same, but so many of them are like painters or like, you know. Something that had nothing to do with like a well-paying job basically, and whether it's DJ

24:56 have to be a painter. But, you know, Carpenter. No, not just those things, but also, like former actor, you know, like things that they kind of could have fizzled out and, you know, it's a good alternative kind of pathway and So are you alluding to like the creative mind or the creative interests that know what I'm looking at is like if you wanted to be a doctor and you're a lawyer, it's beautiful when that happens but it's more rare. The, the lawyer that happens a

25:28 little more often I'm not sure why. Maybe it's also because the lawyer Workforce I've heard is just ridiculously hard right now. Wires, maybe the medical professions a little less. But yeah, like those really well paying jobs that you don't see people switching careers to be yoga teacher on a studio level.

25:51 Yeah. You might see them like, get in like, with the money they made in their profession turning into, like I want to do yoga retreats and like, I love teaching yoga and I don't need any money, but they don't enter the let's make money yoga. Let's make a living to doing this right as my number one profession.

26:08 They don't really enjoy that. And I would love to hear from somebody that's listening to this that has actually, because I will touch base with you on a personal level, and be friends with you because I think it's super dope.

26:20 My friend Vitas is a, you know, college level math professor, but he doesn't do it full-time. So he has a brain again, you know, different types of intelligence. But he has a brand that's very like, doctors are jealous of his IQ where, you know what I mean? My friend Steve Jones.

26:40 He was you know people love this guy but he's just he was just a painter that's what made me think of it as painted fences and not an artist that painted fences and you know just like handiwork painter. And he'll be teaching was like an easy move for him and out, right?

26:57 All right. Yeah, it's interesting because if you have that in you to just say like, yeah, I mean, I'm happy to just go from painting fences to teaching yoga classes because, you know, maybe the certain there's a certain lifestyle that you haven't really gotten attached to, as opposed to someone who's making six figures and working 60 hours a week, they might have a certain lifestyle or certain expenses that are a little bit more.

27:22 Like, I don't want to, like, change this too much. It'll be what I really like change, you know, especially big change. So yeah, I mean, I can, I can say that, you know, being pretty novice in this whole yoga teaching thing. And, you know, just starting to kind of get more into the teaching itself like actual classes, more regularly, you know, it's in.

27:47 Like, I think you've said before is, like it's not easy for someone to just like quit everything and just start teaching yoga full-time like Because unless you have a financial like bunker, yeah, right to back you up. It's not going to, you know, might not, it might work out great but it also, you know, the odds are not really for you and that case so possibly doing like a yeah, like you don't quit the job that you have. But you start to at least like

28:13 merge into the space a little bit more and maybe it is just with practicing yoga to start. And then maybe offering the teacher class a week for for free or by donation or maybe a studio set. Says they'll have you for once a week and you just make that as a commitment and then kind of slowly merging it to maybe two classes and three classes and then maybe you have enough of a schedule that you can go back to part-time because your lifestyle is adjusted a little bit and you

28:38 know, you know that you'll be okay on a part-time salary but also the yoga teaching supplementing it a little bit. Basically, I'm trying to say is like, it doesn't need to be such a dramatic. You know, jobs, which possibly, it's like, how can you test the water without completely, you know, jumping in without a buoy? Yeah.

28:57 And I mean, you can have the buoy and put your foot in and see how it goes. And then, slowly put your leg in and totally. Yeah, just like wrapping this back around to the How do you find? You know, your spark within reignite?

29:13 Your spark as a yoga teacher? I mean, you just gotta remember you got to remember, you said it from the beginning. Got to remember why you got into it and and if it's for the wrong reasons and wrong might be a powerful word.

29:32 That doesn't sound feel good to hear, but if it's for the wrong reasons, then naturally it might just not work out. And that's above the right reasons. Yeah, yeah, that's okay. Cool. Yeah I think we covered it all. Yeah.

29:49 And I like how we ended it on this like kind of you know like cathartics Solon, kind of moment of it's okay. Yeah, it's okay. Either way it's okay. It is not, everybody has to be a yoga teacher but that being said, it will fucking good at it.

30:07 You have a, you have a responsibility to share it. Yeah. So you got to know if you if you do, right? And just as back to Ego and just to kind of even soften, that is like there's so many different ways that you can teach you again.

30:22 Absolutely. And it doesn't need to be in the traditional sense that you think it could be something traditional for you. And, uh, I'm gonna go back to the traditional, like, that's true. Let's there's so much. Oh, somebody's talking.

30:38 All right. Well in that case we're going to end this episode and thank you so much for listening. As always if you have any questions or any thoughts on the topic or any future topics that you'd like us to talk about, please let us know. Otherwise.

30:51 We're probably just going to talk about whatever we want to talk about. Yeah. Hey and what I was thinking I was like maybe you know if you guys want to hear more talk about diet or food, maybe you're hanging on with the yoga teacher story.

31:04 Whatever it is for you, let us know. Or maybe you just like, you know, want to hear us talk about whatever random shit, right? You kind of said that there's no? Yeah, yeah. All right. We'll see you next week. Take care. Much love – all right.

31:21 Before you go, let me just tell you about the going pro, yoga.com platform. So right now you can go to going pro yoga.com and check it out for free for seven days where you can actually learn more about yoga in the ways of alignment queuing sequencing yoga Anatomy.

31:36 So that if you've done a Our teacher training and you want to continue to learn practice and grow. This platform is definitely for you, so I definitely suggest checking it out going pro yoga.com right now. You can try it out for free for 7 days.

31:37 Our teacher training and you want to continue to learn practice and grow. This platform is definitely for you, so I definitely suggest checking it out going pro yoga.com right now. You can try it out for free for 7 days.