A new yoga and wellbeing session is looking to help teachers and educators tackle burnout by giving them a chance to slow down and learn wellbeing practices that they can take into their own classrooms.
Yoga for Educators is an entirely new event hosted by Wellbeing in Education with an aim to release tension, restore energy and give your mind a chance to breathe and catch up.
Wellbeing in Education owner Anita McCurdie has been a teacher for 18 years and experienced burnout herself.
“I experienced burnout a couple of years ago and in that time I became quite cynical and frustrated about the teaching profession,” she said.
“I went to a studio called Equilibrium: The Holistic Living Project in Unley and it’s a really holistic place. It got me back on track. It helped me reset and reconnect with my purpose.
“It was really good for my mindset, I was feeling really negative and it allowed me to consistently come back to being mindful, and resetting myself and my energy.”
This is where she was inspired to create these sessions and Wellbeing in Education. Anita understands how taxing teaching has got in recent years. She highlighted that managing a classroom of 30 students has become increasingly complex in recent years. Challenges include supporting diverse needs such as neurodiversity and anxiety, addressing rising instances of bullying, and navigating broader societal pressures, all while trying to provide the best educational environment for each student. Anita understands why burnout is becoming so common.
It’s her mission to help teachers feel recharged through the Yoga for Educators session and they can take home some tips and tricks too.
Teachers can feel like they go an entire day without taking a breathe and in the session they undergo breathing exercises that they can easily implement into their teaching schedule.
Anita suggests doing breathing exercises after recess and lunch with the class.
“There are so many ways that we can create those little micro moments throughout the day to improve people’s well being throughout the day, so then they can go home and actually enjoy their lives, rather than go home depleted and burnt out and frustrated,” she said.
“It is really important in sustainability for teachers, but also for reducing their burnout.”
Discovering yoga and reconnecting with her passion and purpose, teaching, is something Anita does not take for granted. She loves being in the classroom and helping young people learn, and she wants to prevent others from stepping away from the profession.
In a further effort to keep educators within the teaching community Anita has created a 12-part podcast series titled ‘Right Now’ where she brings together psychologists, educators, wellbeing experts, and thought leaders. They have honest conversations about the wellbeing and emotional reality of being a teacher.
The Yoga for Educators will be run by yoga instructor Gen Braund and brings her passion and expertise to make yoga accessible to all.
Yoga for Educators will be held at Equilibrium: The Holistic Living Project and will have two sessions, May 2nd and May 23rd, purposefully placed on a Saturday and before report writing time to help teachers enter a new mindset and headspace.
Yoga for Educators
Where: Equilibrium: The Holistic Living Project, 66-68 Unley Rd, Unley
When: Saturday May 2 and Saturday May 23 (12.30pm – 1.30pm)
For more information, click here.
