Tips for setting up your own yoga class – the ultimate yoga teacher life hack
Hi everyone!
I’m hopping on the blog today to give you yoga teachers out there the Ultimate Yoga Teacher life hack – especially for those teachers who have set up their own classes (ie: not teaching in a studio). It’s so simple and so effective! (I’m not sure why I didn’t do this 4 years ago, truly.)
The very simple hack is:
GET YOURSELF A BEAUTIFUL TOILETRY BAG.
I have the one above from Bando – this one is similar!
Actually, there is a funny story surrounding the purchase of this gorgeous bag! The Warr and I had taken a stroll along the Thames one Saturday and we walked passed Suck UK at the OXO tower – now for anyone who knows me – Suck UK is completely *my* kind of store. Actually it’s probably my brother, my mother and my father’s type of store too – (although my dad would also take a good bakery to be fair) – but it’s basically filled with little gadgets and gizmos and things full of quirk and irony and things that are extremely humorous yet wonderfully useless – from accessories, to furniture to random products to games to fashion to interior things. That kind of store. I obviously had to go in – which is no problem at all, except those kind of stores I can lose whole myself for DAYS in – which my husband obviously knew.
So there I was about 45 mins in, having only browsed the first shelf, when husband who had already “done” the entire store by now and was patiently staring out the window longingly at the nearest pub, I had reached these gorgeous toiletry bags with ALL their many compartments and was uuumming and aaahing over them and debating which colour and what to get, when a stranger (and American woman on holiday) tapped me on the shoulder and said to me, “I think your husband and my husband should go hang out and get beers and we can shop here together” and I turned around to see her husband too, staring longingly out the window at the nearest pub. “And…” she continued, “I think you should get the purse!”
And so I said, “hahaha – thanks lady! I think will!” So I did!”
What a lol!
I used to put everything that I needed for my yoga classes into my big Manduka backpack, but what I was finding was that for some classes – like my private kids yoga – I don’t need the same stuff as I do for my Yoga classes in Wimbledon and I don’t need the same stuff for the yoga classes in Wimbledon that I’ve personally set up, versus the yoga classes that I teach at a studio – so every session I was ending up packing, repacking, unpacking, repacking things into my backpack – which is a lot of extra time hassle and can lead you to forget things!
So – now I have ONE simple bag with everything that I need in it for my yoga classes in Wimbledon. One bag goes in, ONE bag goes out.
So simple. (I told you).
What I love about this toiletry bag/purse is that is has so many different compartments – which is perfect for what I wanted it for – as a mini carry all for taking to my church-hall yoga in Wimbledon.
If you’re a yoga teacher setting up your own classes in a church hall/school facility/club house/storage space/warehouse etc there is a lot of “stuff” that you need to remember to bring with you and having one bag that you can keep everything together really helps when you’re heading off to your venue as you only need to pick up one thing, rather than several thousand.
What to include in your yoga bag:
+ My bag has a few different pockets which I’ve dedicated to holding cash and coins – if most people are dropping in for a yoga class, you need a quick and easy way to give change and store payments.
+ I also have a space for “business cards” – the ‘business cards that I use are really just intention cards that I designed that I sometimes use at the end of class to leave a different luck-of-the-draw card facedown for each person (they all have different intentions written on them).
+ I also keep my class pass cards in the bag and use a separator to keep them distinct from the intention cards.
+ For all the new people who come to my beginners yoga in Wimbledon on Wednesday evenings, I give them a Sun Salutation card – also something that I designed in my branding scheme.
I think one of the most intimidating things about starting yoga is arriving in the room and feeling like EVERYBODY knows exactly what they are doing and you have no idea. So when I explain this to people and what a Sun Salutation is, and how we use it to warm up the body, I give them a Sun Salutation card to take home – so that they can practice it and go over what they learnt if they want.
+ Pens, You always need pens.
+ Indemnity forms
These go together, obviously.
+ Lighter – I keep some candles in the actual venue that I hire, but I leave my lighter in my bag so that I’m not hunting around for one each time I need to leave.
+ Drawing pins – I know this seems like an odd thing to keep in your bag, but they are terribly useful if you are in a church hall or some kind of space where there is a community notice board. If you create flyers for any retreats/workshops and you have spare left over you will without fail forget to bring drawing pins each and every single time – so just drop a handful into your bag for safe keeping. You can thank me later.
+ Oil blends – if you like to use any oils at the end of your practices then pop them into the bag.
+ Extra hair bands. Most women (or men with long hair) will be coming straight from work to class, and some of them may on occasion forget to pack a hair band. You can REALLY be a hero if you have a spare one stored away safely.
I’ve been a hero on several occasions, and then I’ve failed to be a hero on several other occasions too.
In my opinion, it feels way better to be a hero, so pop in a hair band or two. lol.
So there you have it! A super simple sure-fire way to make sure your life is
ORGANISED, SIMPLIFIED and EASY-with-a-touch-of-hero.
If you come join me at one of my Wimbledon yoga classes at St Marks Hall – then you will see this pretty bag in action!
What tips do you have for staying organised as a yoga teacher? Do share them with me below!