Before You Quit Teaching, Try This

Picture this: barely slept the night before, the dog is sick, had an argument with a family member, and, to top it off, the left shoulder is throbbing. I would honestly think about calling in sick. But you turned up anyway because that is the job: you walk in, set up, greet your participants, hit play and teach the class.

I have been teaching for many years, I am in my 50s now, and I have learned this the slow way. Resilience is a practice. Some weeks you feel solid, other weeks you feel like you are one annoying situation away from losing your patience with the world.

If you are a group fitness instructor, you are managing emotion, attention, timing, music, safety, connection, and the quiet pressure of being “on”.

Resilience is a response

Brené Brown puts it like this: “Vulnerability is not weakness…” and she goes on to explain that uncertainty and emotional exposure are part of life, and our choice is how we engage with them.

Question: When was the last time you noticed yourself reacting in class and thought, “That is not how I want to show up”?

Burnout is not “weakness”; it is unmanaged load

The World Health Organisation describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been effectively managed, characterised by exhaustion, mental distance or cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy.
That shifts the story from “I should cope better” to “My load is not matching my capacity, what can I adjust?”

For instructors, “load” is not only the class. It is the commute, the timetable gaps between classes, the weekend classes, the program planning, the emotional labour, and for many of us, caregiving, relationship stress, money stress, ageing parents, teens, menopause transitions, or all of the above.

Resilience is how you keep teaching without letting the job or life strip away your patience and your spark.

The instructor's version of resilience

When I look at the instructors who keep going, not just surviving, but still enjoying teaching, I notice three layers. None of them is fancy.

1) Physical capacity

You can be the best teacher on earth, but if you are chronically under-recovered, everything feels harder. Your voice, your mood, your timing, your tolerance for distractions, your ability to adapt.

This is where many of us get stuck. Teaching is physical, but it is not always training, and it is not always balanced with regard to what is healthy for our bodies - aqua instructors, I am talking to you.

Try this check-in before you decide you “just need motivation”:

• Sleep debt, how many nights this week did you get what your body needed
• Fuel, did you eat in a way that supports long teaching days
• Hydration, did you rely on coffee and forget water
• Strength, are you doing any work that makes your joints feel supported
• Recovery, do you have a routine and prioritise this

This is about maintenance.

Question: If your body could send you one clear message about what it needs right now, what would it say?

2) Mental capacity, your attention is your tool

Instructors have a lot going on in their heads at once when they are in teaching mode. That is an amazing skill, but it also means your brain is working hard.

Resilience here is about reducing avoidable decision fatigue and increasing the number of things that feel automatic. Planning helps. Notes help. Rehearsal helps because it protects your mental bandwidth.

One small shift that changed my teaching life was having “default plans”:

• a class format that you can run even on a tired day
• a go-to regression and progression for each section of the class
• a simple cue that you can return to when your mind goes blank
• a slow breath in and out before launching into a situation that will possibly cause regret later

That is resilience, because it keeps you out of panic mode.

3) Emotional capacity

Participants pick up your state fast. If you’re wired, they feel it. If you’re scattered, they get scattered. If you’re grounded, they settle. That doesn’t mean you have to be upbeat all the time. It means you can regulate quickly, in the moment.

Try a 10 second reset

Exhale longer than you inhale, soften your jaw, drop your shoulders.

 A longer exhale supports your parasympathetic system, largely via the vagus nerve, which carries signals between the brain, heart, and digestive system, and plays a key role in “rest and digest” activity.

Your heart rate naturally speeds up a little on the inhale and slows on the exhale, this is called respiratory sinus arrhythmia. When you lengthen the exhale, you spend more time in the slowing phase, which helps your system downshift.

Slow breathing has also been shown to increase baroreflex sensitivity, which is part of how your body regulates blood pressure and heart rate.

Softening your jaw and dropping your shoulders removes bracing. When your body stops acting like it’s under threat, your brain is more likely to follow. Put those together and you often cue with more patience, and less urgency, within seconds.

What resilience looks like

Resilience is what you do inside the mess.

Here are a few “instructor moments” that test resilience, and a practical response for each.

When someone gives you vague negative feedback

Stimulus: “That class was boring”, or “It wasn’t hard enough”.
Response: “Thanks for telling me. What would ‘hard enough’ feel like for you, more speed, more load, fewer breaks, or different moves?”

You are not arguing, you are gathering data. Most people do not know how to give useful feedback unless you help them.

When the class energy is flat

Stimulus: the class feels like there is no energy, or participants are ignoring your instruction
Response: Stop chasing hype. Pick one thing to improve

Try:

• reduce your words, give one cue, then let them move
• cue and wait for the response, “show me your best range”, then pause
• notice individuals and what they are doing well

When you feel emotional before teaching

Stimulus: you are carrying stress from outside.
Response: name the goal for the hour, “I am here to teach well, that is enough.”

There is a Maya Angelou quote, perfect when life feels out of your control:
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
You do not need to “win” the day. You just need to stay intact.

Why is Lauren Parsons’ Boosting Your Resilience is for you

Lauren Parsons’ work focuses on helping people shift out of survival mode and build routines that support wellbeing and performance, and she has been recognised as New Zealand Keynote Speaker of the Year and Educator of the Year (2023 to 2024).
If you’re teaching on fumes, this is your reset. Lauren Parsons is presenting Boosting Your Resilience at the MGM Group Fitness Virtual Conference, and you’ll walk away with tools you can use in your next class, not “one day”.

Click Here To Sign Up for MGM Group Fitness Virtual Conference