The life of a fitness instructor…

You’re a master of multitasking, able to juggle a million thoughts at once when you teach, always mentally one step ahead… but you also lay awake at night caught up wondering what people thought of your last class, questioning whether you’re even making a difference.

You have inspirational role models and instructors you look up to…but you don’t want to be carbon copies of them, you want to feel confident showing up to teach as you.

You make it a point to help others prioritize their self-care…but you rarely find the time to take a class for yourself or relax, and when you do, you feel like you should be doing something.

…is hard.

And I bet you’re tired of…

• feeling like you have to rush through your classes, cueing rapid fire without a moment to breathe, just to get everything in.
• teetering on that narrow edge between feeling hyped to teach and knowing you’ll be crushed if no one shows up.
• feeling stuck on a hamster wheel trying to keep up with social media trends and ways to keep your classes fun and engaging.

Build resilience, trust in yourself, and lead classes with confidence with the help of mindfulness.

So you can finally…

• have complete trust in your skills as an instructor and no longer doubt your ability to make an impact
• celebrate other instructors’ success, without falling into the comparison trap
• hit the pause button when you start to feel overwhelmed, without the guilt of taking time for yourself
• greet self-doubt and criticism with compassion, roll with your mistakes while teaching, and no longer feel paralyzed if you mess up
• be fully present with your classes and really take in the experience of leading others to find the joy in movement

I’ve been teaching classes that emphasize the mind-body connection since 2011 and have found mindfulness to be the secret sauce to turning everyday workouts into moving meditations, but this wasn’t always easy for me.

Believe it or not, I really struggled with starting my own personal meditation practice. I could never find the time to sit and the discomfort I felt from the thoughts that came up when I did, made me question how anyone could find this relaxing in the slightest. But when my anxiety around teaching and the pressure I placed on myself to please every member that came into the studio became too much for me to continuing carrying and ultimately led to burnout, I decided to give mindfulness another try. And I’m so glad I did.

Instead of going it on my own, I enrolled in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, started taking classes with a mindfulness meditation instructor, and opened myself up to looking at mindfulness in new ways. I learned that my original expectations surrounding mindfulness weren’t even really what the practice was even about. I realized it’s not about quieting your mind or even trying to feel a certain way, it was about building trust in yourself, so you can meet whatever is present in this moment.

I had been caught up focusing on the destination (peace, relaxation, less stress) that I’d failed to recognize that mindfulness was more a journey, a continuous practice, and meditation just one of the vehicles I could use. Yoga, walking, communicating with friends, and intentional rest were some of the others. I learned I could practice mindfulness while out walking my dog, waiting in line at the grocery store, meeting new clients and listening to their stories, or even while re-racking weights after class. It seemed a natural progression when in 2020 I decided to enroll in a mindfulness meditation teacher training and since then I’ve been sharing mindfulness with other fitness instructors who also have a hard time “sitting still and doing nothing.”

I created Become a Mindful Fit Pro first and foremost to help fitness professionals give back to themselves and not feel guilty for slowing down, and to help instructors like you create a mindfulness practice that works.

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