The Yogi Career Dilemma: How to use Your Studies in Yoga in Nourishing and Transforming your Career
I am thrilled to be conducting this workshop at the Toronto Yoga Conference! For me, it is a way of giving back to the yoga community that has supported me for so long. Through this workshop I will share my personal journey into a yoga career and work with attendees to explore some practical and possible ways to grow your careers in alignment with your yoga practice.
My journey started in 2005. Excited and armed with an engineering degree, I started my brand new engineering career at Ontario Power Generation, Pickering Nuclear plant. I stepped into that career and the bright road ahead knowing there would be many opportunities to learn and a promise to earn a very comfortable living. How could I know that a few years later I would step off this path and head in a very different direction bringing me a few big challenges along the way?
So what triggered that sharp turn? I can thank–or blame—my yoga practice! When I started practicing at a local studio I was drawn to the Asanas, just like most people. And I discovered that living and working in my head in my office every day meant I had become disconnected from my body, like many others. Slowly though, I began feeling connected again to my body and my breath, which meant I began to feel how my body reacts in different situations. The fog in my mind started lifting and I began to see things as they were, particularly that I was not living my truth and was on the wrong path in life.
At the time I didn’t have the wisdom to look at the complexities of my life as I can now. I would say my view was too simplistic in those early days, but at least I knew I had to explore. I had been a seeker all my life, but it was only when I persisted with Asanas that I truly became committed to know more about myself and to live my life with purpose. My beautiful and talented yoga teacher at the time recommended that I study to become a teacher through Synergy Movement. So I did.
Mine is not an isolated case: many yoga practitioners, both regular yoga class students and YTT graduates, are moved and transformed by yoga. For most, this transformation unfolds naturally without any intention or desire to change. The change starts first in the body and mind then into students’ internal lives. Then many students of yoga realize that to follow what they are learning and intuitively feeling, they need to make changes in their current lives. This may affect personal relationships as well as careers: they can no longer live with the older version of themselves! These students start looking to find their “dharma.”
Such changes can be a big problem for many because it leads to unhappiness, anxiety and stress. Most of us do not have the option of changing jobs, or leaving careers or relationships. Nor should we have to. We recognize the corporate world is not well suited to women, particularly those who pursue yoga and want to take the teachings to the next level. But our “day jobs” are where we spend most of our time—often more time than with our personal relationships and family! We cannot afford to neglect this area of our lives for our own mental and emotional wellness sake and our ability to serve others by sharing our gifts.
I have had the opportunity to mentor friends and colleagues in the yoga community in their career journey. Ever since my own career shift started more than five years ago, yoga teachers, engineers, and other friends in corporate jobs have come to me to ask me how I did it, how I took those golden handcuffs off. It wasn’t easy for me nor will it suit everyone to completely change career paths. But it is possible to use our skills as yogis and yoginis to nourish our lives and careers in so many ways that are sustainable to our lives, our livelihoods and our communities. And we don’t have to shock our finances by quitting cold-turkey!
Bahareh Hosseini
Article written for The Toronto Yoga Conference and Show:
http://blog.theyogaconference.com/the-yogi-career-dilemma
Join me for an in depth discussion on April 3rd in Toronto:
The Yogi Career Dilemma: How to use your studies in Yoga in nourishing and transforming your career
Bahareh Hosseini - SU3HOS
Many yoga practitioners, students or YTT graduates are moved and transformed by yoga. This happens and unfolds naturally for many, first with the body and mind and the students' internal lives, but there comes a point that many students of yoga may feel that in order to actually follow what they have learnt, it needs to be further embodied in their personal lives and their work. In this workshop we will explore and discuss practically how we may best bring the two together, with or without quitting our jobs.
REGISTER HERE FOR THE SESSION: https://www.theyogaconference.com/toronto/
