Best Career For A Stay At Home Mom - Yoga Instructor
Most of us at some point or another will question what it is we do for a living. Depending upon what “chapter” of your life you are in will most likely have a great affect on how you view your current job or career. As for me, I had spent the first six years after college working in a sales position of some type. I started off working as a sales executive for a small company selling jewelry to high-end department stores. After working for a family owned business, I decided to put my sales experience to use and began working for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country. Both jobs had their pros and cons of course, but as my personal life began to take shape so did my priorities. I no longer had the burning desire to travel and stay up into the wee hours entertaining clients. At twenty-eight, I got married and ten months later gave birth to my first child. Let’s just say I went through two of life’s biggest chapters in about 2 paragraphs.
A few months after my son was born, I struggled to find that “balance” that many new moms are trying to achieve. I realize that many mothers do not have an option in regards to going back to their old jobs. My goal was to find work outside of the home, but still have the flexibility to make my son my number one priority. I started researching on the Internet about “jobs for moms” etc., but nothing was catching my attention. It wasn’t until my husband and I were leaving a yoga class one morning, and he looked at me and said, “Wait a minute, you love yoga, you know a good bit about it and you love to talk, you need to teach!” Part of that was true, I do love yoga and I loved the idea of sharing the gift it has to offer. After looking into different yoga teacher training sessions, I was able to find one that fit into my schedule. It was a two-week intensive course, six days a week for nine hours a day. I was able to arrange for my Mother to watch my son during the day and the best part of all is that I would be a teacher in 2 weeks! Many programs are only offered on the weekends over a course of nine months and I knew I wanted to begin my new career sooner than later.
By the end of those two weeks, I had never felt so energized and enthusiastic about starting my new career. The course not only taught me the physical and spiritual aspects of yoga, but also the business side of creating my own company. After receiving my certification, I decided to get my feet wet by becoming a full time substitute teacher at a health club. Starting off slow allowed me to gain confidence, find my voice and the students were much more forgiving with a substitute instructor. I was able to also build my resume and learn more bout my local yoga community. There are various avenues to explore with a yoga certification. Some include teaching at a yoga studio, health club, schools, hospitals, private lessons and corporate yoga to name a few. I recently am starting teaching two days a week at staffing company. I teach a sixty-minute class to the employees during their lunch break. Many companies encourage their employees to be proactive with their personal health; yoga is an excellent activity to incorporate into any work environment.
As we all know, in order to be successful in anything you must have a genuine interest in what you are doing. Find what you love and success will soon follow.
Gia K. (Florida).
