My Yoga Journey - From Kindergarten Teacher to Yoga Instructor
- Ashley
- Mar 1
- 7 min read
When I was a little girl, I had dreams of being an artist, a school principal, an attorney, and at one point, a radio or TV personality. I majored in Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University with hopes of going into Broadcast Media. After an internship with a local radio station, I learned this wasn't the path for me. Going into my junior year, I felt a bit weary and unsure about what step to take next, so I met with Career Services and took an assessment
to discover what careers would be best suited to my passions and skills. Education was one of many options and felt like it could be a good fit. Plus, I still had time to get the credits and take the tests I needed to become a certified teacher, so I did just that.
Yoga Instructor wasn't on my list of career paths; in fact, I didn't know much about yoga until my first experience sophomore year of college. My sorority held a sisterhood wellness event where a yoga teacher led us through an hour-long practice. The entire time we were all giggling and making faces—the teacher, Salima, giggled with us but stayed grounded as she guided us from pose to pose with grace, strength, and such a calm demeanor. As most yoga sessions do, class ended with savasana—lying down, eyes closed, just being. I remember the room of 120 women went silent, and I felt a wave of peace come over me I had not experienced before. I felt light and full of joy.
I went back to Salima's class twice a week through the remainder of my time at school and continued to fall in love with the practice more and more each time. I discovered something that helped me feel supported, safe, grounded, and relaxed during a time in my life that felt chaotic and lacking direction. I had no idea at the time how this would impact me today.
Back to teaching - I graduated with the bare minimum of knowledge on "how to be a teacher." I had 5 Education courses under my belt with maybe 10 hours of internship (not even really teaching the students, just observing and maybe sitting and reading with them here and there - I think my brain blocked out some of these memories, lol), and I passed the three tests you must take to become certified all before I graduated college. That summer after graduation, I interviewed at a few schools and was offered positions for 4th and 5th grade (not my vibe) and finally got a call from a Charter School for a Kindergarten position, which I accepted.
You may not know this, but teaching is HARD. There are so many things you may not think about if you're not a teacher. I cried often in my first year and some in my second. I came in at least an hour early and sometimes left three hours after school ended (I got rid of that habit by year two). Thank goodness for my Kindergarten Lead, Yvonne; she was caring, kind, smart, and showed me the ropes. I remember setting up my room and her coming in to tell me it wouldn't work. I almost had a meltdown realizing then, before I even had a class roster, that I had no idea what I was getting into. There's so much to know about the flow of teaching, tons of tricks and tips—that could be a whole other post. I am forever grateful to her and my team, who became some of my forever friends.
Anyway, how did I get from being in the classroom full-time to being on the mat full-time?! Well, I was still in love with yoga while I taught kindergarten and wanted to offer it to the kids, so in my second year, I started an after-school program. It was so much fun, and I loved sharing the practice with others. I decided I wanted to be certified, so I started looking at programs I could complete over the summer. At the time, my husband was an advisor meeting with college students, and one of them had mentioned needing to work around their Yoga Teacher Training schedule. He requested the information for the training, and I reached out to Alan Lowenchuss, aka Allowah Lani, and signed up for my 200-hour YTT.
Often, what you learn in a YTT is very broad. You cover all aspects of "yoga" and just scratch the surface of how to teach. I left the training with a lot of imposter syndrome, thinking, "there's no way I can teach yoga; I know nothing." Luckily, my husband had a whole lot more belief in me, and with his encouragement, I offered a free class at the park to work on my teaching skills with friends (shout out to everyone who supported me in those beginning days). I continued to offer the after-school program and was asked to teach another kids' yoga program at a local dance studio. I was recommended by a teacher friend to start a program at a 24-hour fitness studio where I taught twice a week and then a CrossFit gym where I taught once a week. Then, this super cool spot, Shangri-La, reached out about offering a family yoga class at their monthly events. Before I knew it, I was teaching regular yoga classes while also teaching Kindergarten full-time. I applied to a local yoga studio, but they only hired teachers who were trained at their studio, womp wompppp.
I loved teaching yoga and wished there was a way I could do it full-time because I definitely enjoyed it more than teaching kindergarten. My husband and I decided to move to Tampa, and I knew this was the time to get out of the classroom. I applied to lululemon in Hyde Park Village and was offered the job, but only part-time to begin (which was not nearly enough money to make up for my missing salary). I started an Etsy shop and began selling paintings. lululemon was the catalyst to push me into applying for yoga instructor positions. While I worked to build a full-time schedule with them and orders started flying in from Etsy, I applied to local studios, but had no luck with call-backs or auditions.
The lululemon team had a shared "sweat calendar" where we input the workouts we were attending, and I saw "Hip Hop Flow at CAMP" listed on a Monday night. I had never heard of such a thing, but it was a mix of my two faves, yoga and hip hop music, and I happened to have the night off—I was IN. I rolled up to the studio accidentally 30 mins early, and the teacher (and unbeknownst to me, also the owner) was at the desk when I walked in. She asked if I ever practiced. I said, "Yes, and I am a teacher too looking for a studio." This news was exciting to her because they were losing their lead teacher and needed someone else on the team, so we agreed to share info after class.
The class was incredible, with Rihanna and Biggie Smalls blasting during the flow, candles flickering in the darkness of the space. I was smiling ear to ear the whole time. After class, Jamie said I had a beautiful practice and couldn't wait to meet, so we scheduled to have lunch the next day. During lunch, we connected so well. She said, "This is an excellent fit; you're going to teach and manage here." And so, I did.
That winter, I was offered a seasonal full-time position at lululemon. My Etsy shop was thriving with lots of holiday gift orders and I was managing multiple shifts at CAMP. I wasn't quite ready to teach (I was still very inexperienced), so I took every class I could fit into my schedule, met with Jamie and her teacher, Tony, throughout the week, and ran practice reps in the studio until we felt ready for me to go on the schedule. I was hustling hard during this time but knew that it was so worth it and even with little sleep, I was loving life.
I taught my first blend that December and started subbing here and there. We then added a 6 a.m. Monday Blend that became very popular. I was building my following, and people knew me because I was at CAMP 24/7 (so much so that I had to let go of lululemon that May; it was obvious where my focus and energy were flowing).
Eventually, I did a test class for a full Flow, which was a perfect fit for me! We added a class on Tuesdays at 7:15 am and soon after another on Thursdays, same time. My favorite addition to the schedule was Friday 6 am Hip Hop Flow. This was my baby, and I kept building it to be consistently full with a waitlist week after week. As the business at CAMP continued to grow, we all had more responsibilities on our plates. I took on managing Retail, and Jamie needed to come off classes. She asked if I could take over the Monday night Hip Hop Flow—I was ecstatic and nervous because these were big shoes to fill. If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you! I took it on and still have that class to this day.
While I continued teaching classes and overseeing retail at CAMP, I also assisted Jamie in developing our yoga team by recruiting, hiring, and training yoga instructors. This eventually evolved into a full-time position at CAMP as Head of Programs. I enjoyed this role, but it came with its challenges; managing schedules and personnel, having difficult conversations, and letting people go were particularly tough. I realized I was juggling two full-time roles while maintaining a full teaching schedule, which became overwhelming, especially as we prepared to open our second location on the West Coast, which would increase my responsibilities. Consequently, I stepped down from the Head of Programs position. Now, I have found my flow and am content teaching a full schedule and serving as the Director of Retail at CAMP.
Transitioning from teaching Kindergarten to becoming a Yoga Teacher has been a distinctive and remarkable journey for me. It required overcoming fears, taking risks, trusting the process, and relying on support systems.
I hope my story encourages you to boldly pursue your dreams!
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