Cool Jobs – Yoga Instructor

How cool would it be to work in a job where you could keep fit and stay healthy at the same time? Well, Tane Lee has such a job – she’s a full time hot yoga Instructor at Absolute Yoga.

JobsDB editor, Mark Lim, chats with Tane to get more insights into the world of hot yoga.

Tane, what motivated you to become a hot yoga instructor?

A friend actually introduced me to hot yoga a couple of years ago when I was recovering from a hip injury.

I found that I really enjoyed practicing hot yoga, so when I decided to take a long break from my work as a producer in photography production, I signed up for the one-month hot yoga teacher’s training course on the beautiful island of Koh Samui, Thailand.

It was a really educational, healthy and relaxing experience as I basically practiced hot yoga everyday and ate purely vegetarian meals. Upon returning to Singapore, I did an internship at Absolute Yoga while still working full time as a producer.

The other yoga instructors at Absolute Yoga felt that I had the potential to become an instructor and encouraged me to pursue it further, so I decided to shift from teaching part-time to a full-time position later on when I was given the offer. I didn’t have to give it much thought as I had decided that I was ready for a lifestyle and career change. Therefore I became a full time hot yoga instructor and have been doing so for the last one year plus.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

As a hot yoga instructor, it makes your day when your students tell you that you have made their day better and they feel great after a class. Some of my students have also become friends and we even go out together at times.

Also, there is a great feeling of bliss in a hot yoga class when the instructor and students are all simply enjoying the class together and getting in tune with their own body, mind and spirit through the yoga postures.

Practicing hot yoga also helps me to live a more holistic lifestyle that keeps me fit, in tune with myself and grounded. In this world, there will always be people who work harder and yet earn less, and there are also people who work less but earn more. As for me, enjoying my job is the most important thing, rather than how much it pays.

What’s the great thing about hot yoga?

Bikram or hot yoga is a series of yoga poses done in a heated room, which is usually maintained at a temperature of 40 degrees. A vigorous yoga session at this temperature promotes profuse sweating, which rids the body of toxins. It also makes the body very warm, and therefore more flexible. Hot yoga is a system of wellness, restoration and rejuvenation. The heated studio facilitates deeper stretching, prevents injury, relieves stress and tension and detoxifies the body. Hot yoga was designed to systematically stimulate and restore health to every muscle, joint and organ of the body. Participants are guided through a series of 26 postures. (Source: www.wikipedia.org)

Hot yoga is a great way to exercise and de-stress as you really sweat! However, we always advise our students to listen to their own bodies and not to push themselves too hard in class as everyone is different. More importantly, yoga is not about proving to others how skillful one is in being able to do the postures, but more about practicing yoga to achieve good physical and mental health.

Because we practice hot yoga in a studio with mirrors, the students can see themselves and this helps them to focus and concentrate on their yoga postures more.
 
What are your plans for the future?

I would like to broaden and deepen my learning and practice of the yoga postures in the future.