In this episode of Cozy Yoga Life, we dive into the real-life struggles that yoga teachers face when it comes to physical and mental clutter. From overflowing homes to the constant mental chatter of self-doubt and imposter syndrome, clutter comes in many forms and affects our health and well-being.
Plus, get a sneak peek into my upcoming book The Yoga of Decluttering and discover how you can join me on this transformative journey.
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Real Life Struggles: Clutter Transcript
Hello Cozy Crew and welcome to this week’s episode of Cozy Yoga Life. In this season, I have been discussing the various struggles of yoga teachers. So far, we’ve gone through menopause, divorce, and burnout, and today we’re going to talk about the weight of clutter. Especially as it ties in to the release of my new book coming out soon, The Yoga of Decluttering.
One of the reasons I was inspired to do a theme around the struggles of yoga teachers is because there seems to be all of these different myths floating around about instructors.
I’m not sure how that originated, but it’s sometimes humorous the surprise that people show when I tell them that I’m practicing yoga to be a better person, not to be a perfect person. That I have flaws and that I have dark sides and depressing thoughts just as a person who doesn’t practice yoga.
yoga Teachers are Real People, Too
When I tell people how long I’ve been practicing and teaching yoga, they have this sense of awe on their face and they usually follow that with some type of comment about, “Wow, you must really have life all figured out, or you must be the calmest and most serene person walking the planet.”
If I had it all figured out, I wouldn’t need to be practicing yoga in the first place. If I was so calm and serene, then I wouldn’t need to find the quiet that comes from a consistent yoga practice.
I practice yoga to keep from being a sobbing, weeping mess on the floor every day. I practice yoga so that my jagged edges don’t ever get to be too rough and hurt myself or hurt somebody else.
Just like yoga teachers get mad and angry, just like we say and do impulsive things. We get divorced. We go to therapy. We can also get overwhelmed with physical and mental clutter.
Signs you have physical Clutter
Let me start with the physical clutter because that’s usually easiest to connect into. The yamas of austerity and non-greediness teach us that balance and harmony comes from living intentionally—only living with what we need and not desiring what somebody else has.
However, remember yoga teachers aren’t saints, we are regular human beings, and way too often, that shiny purse beckons me to own it. Or a quick stroll through Costco yields me yet another pair of yoga pants. Until suddenly one day you open your closet and your clothes explode out of it because you have so much more than you need.
One of the most shocking statistics that I read when I was doing research for The Yoga of Decluttering was how many more possessions the average American has today versus 20 years ago. I’m going to pause for a moment and let you just make a random guess.
The average American owns 300,000 possessions. It might be in your garage. It might be in your pantry. It might be in a spare bedroom closet. But I bet somewhere in your home there are things that you hope a guest doesn’t find. If you are nodding your head to any of that then you are probably dealing with physical clutter.
Symptoms of Mental Clutter
Let’s look at an example for mental clutter. In the last podcast episode on burnout, I talked about how yoga teachers, when they go from teaching yoga as a passion to having it as a career that it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the different balls that you’re juggling.
From the time and energy that you put into teaching regular classes. To running your small business, such as taxes and marketing. To getting in your own personal practice and balancing that out with your personal life, with your family and friends. It can very easily get overwhelming.
If it gets to a point when you go to sleep at night, you put your head on the pillow and worries are still going through your mind, preventing you from going to sleep, you are dealing with mental clutter.
Examples of Emotional Clutter
There’s also emotional clutter. How many toxic relationships do you hang onto hoping something will change and it never does? Maybe you have a corporate job in addition to teaching yoga and you feel completely overlooked or unfulfilled in that position.
Another big component of emotional clutter that I’ve seen-dealt with as well- is as I’ve mentored yoga teachers throughout the last two decades. One of the most common obstacles that we’re working through is the feelings of self doubt or imposter syndrome, not feeling like they’re enough or good enough to be yoga teachers. Those are all examples of carrying this emotional clutter around with you.
Most of the research studies that I looked at they all talked about mental and physical clutter creating the same issues. And that’s going to be things like increased stress and anxiety, decreased feelings of life satisfaction, decreased mental well-being. And clutter also tends to be linked to more feelings of sadness and depression.
Inspiration for The Yoga of Decluttering
What inspired me to write The Yoga of Decluttering? When I first started teaching yoga 25 years ago, I read an obscure book called Open Your Mind to Prosperity by Catherine Ponder. In the book, she talked about this mystical three-step formula for creating prosperity and abundance in your life.
Interestingly, it would take me a few more years to realize that her mystics were yogis and the three-step formula she referred to was a form of yoga discussed in The Yoga Sutras.
From the moment I made that connection, kriya yoga became my favorite form of yoga, and I loved it so much I included it in yoga teacher training.
Coming from a background as a corporate trainer and developer and then being a yoga educator, it is always been my goal to break down concepts into easily understandable ideas. One of the ways that I do that is I try to find activities or exercises that allow participants to experience that concept instead of just lecturing about it.
Modern Spin on Kriya Yoga
So I brainstormed how can I make kriya yoga more tangible for my students? The result? They received a home decluttering project. Watching these teachers clean up and clear out and experience new developments dropping into their lives? That was all the anecdotal evidence that I needed. That one home decluttering project grew into The Yoga of Decluttering.
In my book, I explain the three steps of kriya yoga in both ancient and modern practices. My goal in writing The yoga of Decluttering is to make kriya yoga more approachable and more accessible. To stitch back what has been separated in yoga, bringing back together the practical and the philosophical aspects of yoga.
Something that should have never been separated in the first place, but is too often separated in Western yoga classes.
Earlier I mentioned an example of emotional clutter, like overcoming self-doubt or imposter syndrome. How can kriya yoga or the yoga of decluttering help you move past that?
Getting Rid of Mental Clutter
First you have to recognize the old thoughts. Then you have to do a little bit of investigating. Where did those old thoughts and beliefs come from? Once you’ve rooted out where those old thought patterns come from then you have to replace them with new thoughts.
That is a really simplified version of working through kriya yoga, and if only it were that easy, right? But like any form of yoga, it takes time and consistency to see long lasting results and kriya yoga. The Yoga Decluttering is the same.
I highly recommend you check out the previous episodes of Cozy Yoga Life: the niyamas and how to practice kriya yoga. That will provide you a good foundation for working the practices that I outlined in The Yoga of Decluttering. However in the book, I’m going to dive a little bit deeper into kriya yoga and the three individual stages.
Plus, remember I’m an educator. I like to provide exercises and activities that will help you synthesize the information you’re reading. So along with the background on kriya yoga, you’re also going to get a 12-week game plan for clearing out your mind, body and spaces. Week by week, I assign you manageable activities so that by the end of the 12-week time period, you will feel more confident in the practice of kriya yoga.
And hopefully at that point you will also be experiencing new developments dropping in your lap.
Wrap Up for Physical and Mental Clutter
Thank you for joining me in this episode of Cozy Yoga Life about clutter, and how important it is to get rid of all of the clutter that weighs you down, the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and even those spaces surrounding you.
As always we’re in this yoga journey together and I can’t wait to see how you are able to clean up and clear out those spaces.
That wraps another soul nourishing episode of Cozy Yoga Life. As always, thank you for letting me be a part of your yoga journey. If you enjoyed today’s authentic conversation, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Until next time, stay cozy, take care of yourself, and keep it real.
