After completing yoga teacher training I was really motivated to start teaching and get my own style of yoga going. Well sometimes life gets in the way of where you think you should be heading. Bills have to be paid, deadlines have to be met, and other obligations somehow take priority. That doesn't mean that I've given up on teaching or developing my "own brand" of yoga practice but I had to put those things on the back burner for a bit. Basically having three jobs was just too much. My full time job for almost 20 years now has been as a bartender. My husband and I also have a small business that we've been working hard at growing. He is also a bartender full time. While it's a good paying gig, it requires long late hours of tiring thankless work. When I was younger, I loved it. I am not knockin' it, it's a damn good living and has provided me with a flexible enough schedule to have my own business and take yoga teacher training at the same time. It's just that at this point in my life, I need something more, well, rewarding. I want to feel good about how I make my money. I want the "right livelihood" that we learn about in yoga training. I want my livelihood to be good for me and those around me. I have always wanted to live as an artist and inspire people to pursue their own passions. My husband is a musician and artist as well and has the same desire to live a different way.
So out of our just being plain tired and bored with our bar jobs, we decided to take our lives in a new direction. We want to wake up feeling good about what our days have in store for us. We decided that our little business making bags and home accessories out of old albums needed to be our priority. We love where that has taken us so far and want to see what kinds of doors that path may open. I have not been teaching yoga because I felt burnt out and I don't think it's fair to my students to not be able to put in the time I want to make my classes inspiring and fun. I am being pulled in too many directions. I still have my own personal practice and I practice with my husband at home so I can sort of teach. In addition to wanting to change our profession, we wanted to change our lifestyle in general. We also realized we had somehow managed in five years to fill our house with stuff. All sorts of stuff. Most of which we can do without. So we decided it's time to purge and downsize. We love camping and traveling in our RV to all the festivals and events we do with our business. So we've decided to try out full time RV living. What have we got to lose? And what better way to reconnect with our divine creative selves than to get rid of all the clutter and junk that we don't need and live simply and free to roam? We are in the purging process at the moment. It's a long process! If you've never gotten rid of the majority of your belongings and started over, well, it's empowering to say the least. And knowing we have a new direction to focus on makes our full time jobs a bit more bearable for the time.
With all of this being said, I plan on teaching again soon. I just needed to work some things out in my own life so that I feel like I can give the right energy to my classes. I will keep posting about this journey and where it leads me. I'd love to take my yoga on the road and teach around the country sharing my story with others.