Navigating new – literal and figurative – space
I often receive questions about being a full-time travelling yoga instructor and writer. The common thread in my DMs has inspired the following honest response of the highs and lows of travel work trades. Firstly, I’m a big fan of bad days; and talking about it. Willing only positivity to exist in a relentlessly technicolor world misses the point–the challenge is the reward.
Like the ancient symbol of yin and yang, life contains light and shadow, expansion and contraction, giving and receiving. This perspective doesn’t dismiss genuine suffering or trivialize pain. Rather, it offers a wider lens through which to view our experiences—one that acknowledges the constantly shifting nature of all things.
This exists in every part of existence—a dance of complementary forces that create wholeness through their opposition. And the paradox is immediately heightened with travel. There’s an unparalleled “freeness” when you forfeit the anchors to conditioned comfort–and a susceptibility to feeling, doing and being more. It’s magic mostly, but sometimes, it can be a lot.
I was 21 when I travelled alone to India and Nepal for four months. I received more blank stares than best wishes before I left but one comment that stuck was when someone said I will have my best and worst days. I didn’t understand what it meant, until I did. And from this, India became one of my favourite countries and where I learned core growth lessons.
When everything aligned and I was rested and healthy, I felt confident and clear-headed. I gracefully navigated busy streets, blending in, and relished the newness. My senses worked overtime, eyes feasting on colour and texture, ears processing the many languages, rapid speech, music and mayhem and my body acclimatizing to being fully covered in constant heat.
On days I was tired or irritable, craving ease and comfort, I was jolted by the city’s refusal to cooperate. Everything that made life beautiful the previous day was precisely what humbled me the next. I was still a foreigner in a foreign place and this always required a mandatory awareness. Travel is simultaneously exciting and overwhelming. A kind of currency that always balances out and enriches you.
Consider this your positive affirmation to continue planning the international travel or yoga work trade you start, stop and question. It’s always the best and worst time depending on your bias, and it’s always worth it.
Here’s my advice:
Articulate your motivations and intentions–to yourself. Approaching travel and teaching as an escape or distraction isn’t conducive to long-term growth so cultivating home and security internally ensures you’re acting from self-love and not fear or fixing what makes you, you. This foundation is non-negotiable. Geographic relocation doesn’t dissolve internal turbulence. Rather than running from something, shift your perspective to moving intentionally toward deeper knowing.
Reward: the infinite expansion of perspective
The infinite, abundant growth from keeping an open, curious and compassionate mind is the gift that keeps giving. The most profound moments arrive unexpectedly–like the story of someone you meet in passing that speaks to where you are. Or disguised as a challenge, like a language barrier that flexes your memory or forces you to trust your existing knowledge. Disruptions become lessons.
A previous mentor shared the analogy that you can’t pour into a full cup and how tipping out preconceived ideas, assumptions or habits to create space for new perspectives develops critical thinking and a more evolved being. An alchemical response happens when you try an experimental life.
Challenges: sitting with the shadows
Distance
Yin cannot exist without yang. Light and shadows exist within and of each other. Despite spending nearly my entire adult-life thus far across the world from my family, I still feel the distance. Shadows shift depending on you. I’ve met my best friends and most genuine communities travelling and found my people in places I felt most myself.
Impermanence
‘Travel’ implies temporary and the contrast from familiarity or physical stability takes getting used to. I cultivate a home-base when abroad, and spend months or more in one place to maintain and expand my routine. The key is finding what feels good for you.
Explanation
Finally, filtering unsolicited feedback and permitting yourself to answer only the questions you want to indulge from others about your “why” is the less-talked about but most prominent challenge. Endless questions from people that just don’t get “how you can do what you do” and loving yourself enough to not over explain to every pessimist and their dog. Setting boundaries and respecting yourself and others in all facets of travel and teaching (and life), self and cultural awareness are huge.
Misunderstandings will humble you and remind you how much you still have to learn. These challenges aren’t separate or bad—but part of being, and understanding the full human experience.
What questions do you have about yoga teaching abroad? What aspects of international teaching inspire or intimidate you? Add your thoughts and questions in the comments and we’ll address them in future posts. Your experiences and concerns help create a more complete picture for our community—and what make this path so rewarding.
