This week, Kitty interviews Virginia teacher and yoga therapist Lisa Haskins. Lisa has been a teacher in the Alexandria City schools for over 20 years and a yoga practitioner for over 30 years.
Lisa has training as an Advanced Teacher of therapeutic yoga through the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga. She has also studied Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the Center of Mindfulness.
She is a certified Positive Psychology trainer who has completed foundational training in Trauma Center- Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY).
Lisa has guided and facilitated workshops on therapeutic yoga for stress and anxiety regulation and management, boundaries and compassionate assertiveness in communication, and intention setting for lifestyle balance and self-care.
Listen to the conversation between Kitty and Lisa on the cross-connection between the work they both do in stress management for teachers.
For more information about Lisa, check out her website at https://lisajhaskinsyoga.com or email her directly at lisa@lisajhaskinsyoga.com.
To contact Kitty, you can reach her at kittyboitnott@gmail.com. If you would like to make an appointment for a complimentary Discovery Session to talk about a career transition out of the classroom and into another career, go to her calendar at https://teachersintransition.com/calendar.
This week, Kitty interviews Virginia teacher and yoga therapist Lisa Haskins. Lisa has been a teacher in the Alexandria City schools for over 20 years and a yoga practitioner for over 30 years.
Lisa has training as an Advanced Teacher of therapeutic yoga through the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga. She has also studied Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the Center of Mindfulness.
She is a certified Positive Psychology trainer who has completed foundational training in Trauma Center- Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY).
Lisa has guided and facilitated workshops on therapeutic yoga for stress and anxiety regulation and management, boundaries and compassionate assertiveness in communication, and intention setting for lifestyle balance and self-care.
Listen to the conversation between Kitty and Lisa on the cross-connection between the work they both do in stress management for teachers.
For more information about Lisa, check out her website at https://lisajhaskinsyoga.com or email her directly at lisa@lisajhaskinsyoga.com.
To contact Kitty, you can reach her at kittyboitnott@gmail.com. If you would like to make an appointment for a complimentary Discovery Session to talk about a career transition out of the classroom and into another career, go to her calendar at https://teachersintransition.com/calendar.
Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do. You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is kitty boy. Not I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burnout out teachers just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day to a job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty boy, not welcome to teachers in transition.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of teachers in transition, the YouTube channel and the podcast. My name is kitty boy, not I am the owner of boy, not coaching and the founder of teachers in transition. I'm a heart centered career transition and job coach specializing in working with burnout teachers who are ready to make a career change, but don't know how or where to begin. I'm also a certified stress management coach. So I offer stress management strategies to my clients, and I do workshops on stress management for teachers when the need arises. I, I alternate topics each week on my podcast and YouTube channel one week talking about career transition strategies. And then on alternating weeks, I talk about stress management today. The topic is stress and I have the pleasure of having a guest with me, someone who is an expert on how to relieve stress through yoga. I want to welcome Lisa Haskins, who is a certified yoga therapist and a public school educator in the Alexandria public schools. So Lisa, I wanna know a little bit about your background. I know that you're a public school teacher. I know that are, uh, a long time yoga therapist and practitioner. So tell us a little bit about your experience and your background.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, kitty. Uh, first as a public school teacher, I've been teaching in Alexandria for about 22 years. Um, my career began in elementary ELL and then I transitioned to an, the E an ESL literacy coach for the city. And I did that for about four years, four or five years. I don't know, things kind of just blend together. And then I moved to the high school. I, I made a conscious choice at that point to leave coaching, um, and to transition to the high. I think it's one of the largest high schools in the state of Virginia. Um, I work with newly arrived immigrants and I'm a, the literacy specialist. I'm a, I'm a reading specialist at ELL literacy specialist up there working with students who have significant gaps in their literacy and their home language. And so my support is to support them in learning English literacy. So with, with those gaps, um, you know, students coming from home countries with lot of trauma. So the trauma from home countries from quite frankly from poverty, right? The school, our school, I, and again, I'm just estimating here, but probably 98% assisted lunch or free lunch. I'm not sure how it's referred to now. Um, and then the trauma of the pandemic. Yeah. So all of the uncertainty, the unpredictability with virtual schooling, I'm sure anyone watching this, who is a teacher understands. I, I was there. I get it. Um, well,
Speaker 2:It, it, through that, I think that everyone on the planet has been traumatized by the pandemic and the fallout of the pandemic. Then when you add the layer of war and dis disruption, people having to transplant themselves from one country to, to another, starting with nothing, uh, it's understandable that everybody's shell shocked, not metaphorically, if, if not literally, and that they're struggling. And I think would it be fair to say everybody is struggling on some level and some people are doing better than others, and everybody needs to be conscious of the trauma that they've ex experienced in the stress so that they don't let it go unended cause stress unended as you well know, causes sickness and long term illness. So, yeah, I agree that you,
Speaker 3:You know, I think it's also, and kitty, you probably know the term, but, but this, this sense of trauma from the students, the trauma from the environment and in yoga, we have ways of talking about this, but it, it, the end energy and the vicarious trauma to the teachers is, is very real. And, you know, you see it play out. Yeah, Yeah. For myself personally, uh, when I made the choice to, uh, leave the coaching, that was, you know, as a very challenging job when you're trying to, um, push change for any other lack of any other word, right. Um, is very stressful. And I made a choice at that time. I was going through a very traumatic divorce and all of this just bubbled up. So we have the divorce, we have a very stressful and, uh, burnout job. And it, it forced me to turn towards the choices I was making as an individual in really hone my, my, where do I want, who am I literally, that was the ex the, the right, the struggle. What do I really wanna be doing? And this involved, you know, this is where yoga comes in. I've been practicing yoga for over 30 years. Meditate. I'm not sure if I said that already, but at the, the, the space that yoga can hold for, just clearing your vision and making space for what serves. Right. Right. And this idea of setting boundaries. And I see, write about this. I do. Yeah. And this is a skill, right. But we have to be able to see that we are participants in this, this, uh, idea of setting space for ourselves and, and taking time for our, I, I wanted to share something that one of my teachers, he's a Buddhist, uh, teacher, and there's a lot of intersection between mindfulness, Buddhism and yoga therapy, therapeutic yoga. But he I'm actually gonna turn my head here just so I can read it to you. Okay. But I was at, I was that a retreat with him, and I'm gonna tell you, it was impossible for me to reconcile this idea of taking time for myself. Like as a teacher, I was like, this is so selfish. I, I couldn't re reconcile this. And so I was with this retreat with him and, you know, you can ask the leaders questions. And I said, isn't this so selfish and self-serving. And he wrote this to me because I feel like many teachers feel guilty. Yeah. Or that this is selfish to take time for themselves. And so if I can, his name is Hugh burn or Brian I'm. I always forget how to say his last name, excuse me, Hugh. But, um, he wrote taking care to refill and tend to ourselves is necessary to build resilience and compassion so that we can respond and engage with our work, our families and our community in a way that serves our healing and wellbeing. And then he said, in this way, we can deepen our courage and strength to serve forward compassion, because if we don't care for ourselves, and this was the point, he said, Lisa, we don't care for ourselves. We risk cynicism, burnout and ineffectiveness.
Speaker 2:Amen. I would like you. He's exactly right. And you're right. That a lot of teachers start out with this self, you know, it's, it's this selfless prototype that we expect of ourselves. Our parents expected our, I don't know that our students expect it so much. They just, they just do what they do. But administrators, policy makers, everybody, uh, expects teachers to give not just a hundred, hundred percent, but 120%. If you do that on a, on any kind of extended basis, you use yourself up and you don't have anything to give. You don't have anything to give yourself. You don't have anything to give anyone else. And I like what Q said about, because if you don't have that resilience, if you haven't filled yourself up with what you need to be effective, then you stop responding and you start reacting. And when you react to a situation, it usually does not end well, response is much better than reaction.
Speaker 3:And this is mindfulness
Speaker 2:It's, it is
Speaker 3:Practice of mind
Speaker 2:And it is a practice. It is not. So
Speaker 3:It is a practice
Speaker 2:Naturally or easily or without conscious intention. So, absolutely. So tell us a little bit about the kind of yoga that you do and the practice that you have, and the people a little bit about the different people that you work with.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So yoga therapy and yoga teachers. So there's yoga therapists and yoga teachers. And first I wanna say is, it's all yoga. Okay. Now yoga therapists have, um, a lot more training, right? And yoga therapists, the thera of yoga therapy is working with specialized groups. So the practices are tailored to meet the needs of either individuals or the specialized groups. Yoga teachers are. Um, usually so a yoga therapist would have a certified yoga therapist would have about, would have a thousand hours. So I have a thousand hours of training. I am also a yoga teacher, which I'm an experienced yoga teacher. But so you would in a, let's say you're going to a yoga class, either in a gym or in a studio. And you're mostly again, I'm just saying in speaking in generalizations, probably the focus will, would be more on the AA practice, which is the physical practices of yoga, which is wonderful. Right. Even I started, when I started yoga, practicing yoga over 30 years ago, my first initiation was in a gym. I actually think it was at a rec center and this, uh, you know, is great. It, uh, the prac the physical practices of yoga support, strengthening flexibility, um, balance balance, Right? So yoga therapy again, is you'll have more tailored practices. So there would be, of course there'll be AA, the physical practices, but they will be tailored for that group or the individual. Then you would have breathing practices. So there would be a, you know, time for breathing practices, right. Um, me, I'm, I'm a mindfulness meditation teacher, so mindfulness meditation, um, probably more of an extended relaxation period. And, um, but I do wanna say it's all yoga. And, um, my specialty is working with groups and individuals experiencing the symptoms, or, you know, conditions related to stress and anxiety. I also work with groups, uh, experiencing grief and loss, which we both know kitty there's, there's a texture of grief associated with releasing from the role of a teacher. Cause it's a big layer of our identity. Yeah. So therapeutic, you know, that's the difference between I also work with groups on intention setting and utilizing strengths to, uh, support them. And again, through therapeutic yoga, um, identifying are my actions aligned with my, my intentions or goals are my decisions clear. So just using those practices, breath, Ana, meditation, relaxation, to support individuals with
Speaker 2:That. And you work in a variety of locations. It's my understanding. So tell us a little bit about the places where you, you do this work and
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I work, um, with, I par you know, I work and teach workshops and series at a yoga studio in Alexandria, which I can tell you about, I have a workshop, couple of workshops coming up with them. Awesome.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Um, I work with the rec centers because I, one of my missions is to bring therapeutic, yoga into the communities,
Speaker 2:Right. To more people
Speaker 3:Into the, to the people. And then I partner with some, um, social counselors and, and support with that. You know, I, I work with partnering to kind of re bring out again, bringing out these practices.
Speaker 2:Very good. And so what types of clients and groups do you work with? Are they all women or they are
Speaker 3:No, it's mixed. So would be groups. Um, I have groups that I work with that, uh, are stress and anxiety groups, uh, again, the intention setting and goal groups and, um, grief and loss. Then my current husband has per Parkinson's. So I do, you know, it's kind of hard work, so actually it's a lot of men, um, working again with individuals experiencing the symptoms of Parkinson's, but that's kind of a separate, um,
Speaker 2:Special
Speaker 3:Expertise. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Very good. I'm sorry about your husband, but I Hopely
Speaker 3:Still. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Well, and this is an example of where the practices support, you know, kind of, this is acceptance and okay. So working, working through this and how can we support this then?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Uh, that's excellent. So how can the tools and techniques of yoga therapy, support teachers in transition given that many of the teachers that are going to be listening to this episode this week are considering they maybe they've made a decision and they're in the midst of their transition out of the classroom. Maybe they're hanging on the fence. They're not quite sure cuz it's scary to step away from the classroom, especially if you've been at it for 10 or 15 years. So extremely, uh, fearful thing. So in, in terms of how you might help an individual or a group who is in the midst of a career transition, what would that work look like?
Speaker 3:So again, I, I, you know, I, I like to offer that, you know, know I act as a guide and I act as a guide to hold the space and, and, and this is the critical piece about yoga. It's creating these spaces so that the individual can, I'm gonna use the word, dig down and see more clearly the path that will serve them. You know, in yoga, the yogis are really obsessed about meaning and purpose. You know, everyone thinks yoga is about doing this big, right. You know, look on Instagram, this really extravagant AA practice or extreme pose, but the yogis are, you know, what is my deeply held intention? What is my meaning and purpose. And sometimes, you know, holding space for individuals to, you know, in some silence, in some reflection, through journaling, through the AA practices, the especially design practices to feel and sense into the body, through the breathing practices, through relaxation. And then for the journaling, this is what I have found and have seen in front of my own eyes unfold. It's like, I feel so grateful to witness many times these kind of aha moments that my clients have that in then, um, you know, sometimes I lead a book club about DMA and, and it's just this idea. Sometimes we outgrow our DMA, right. You know, and teaching was my DMA for a long time, but how can we, you know, realign our compass to serve ourselves? You know, it may be the DMA is to, or the action is to sustain teaching, but with better aligned boundaries,
Speaker 2:Right?
Speaker 3:So this is how the practices just create the space or the container for the individual to heal themselves. It's not like I'm the healer, you know, right.
Speaker 2:No, you're the guy, they have to heal themselves, but you can be the facilitator. You can give them the tools to the resources that they need to do the inner work. And what I'm loving about what you're saying, Lisa, is that you are talking about digging down, finding the inner meaning and purpose in one's life. I speak to my clients when they first come to me and want, they know that they they've made the decision, they to make a change, they're ready to leave the classroom. They just don't know where that would lead them. They don't know what else they are qualified to do. They don't know what they would want to do. And I encourage them to play in the field of possibilities.
Speaker 3:Mm.
Speaker 2:Not restrict them. So else to what they think might be the list of things that teachers can transition into. But to instead go on a self journey of self-reflection reading, taking assessments, discovering through your, through meditation, through visualization, what kind of work do they feel called to do? And, and how might we make that a possibility using their unique aptitudes talents, experiences in education. Each of my clients is a unique individual with a specific set of assets to offer a new employer. And my job is to help. Like you guide, facilitate, not tell not right,
Speaker 3:Right, right.
Speaker 2:Not tell or do that's their job, but I'm on the side. As the facilitator and fact, I had one client email me once a, a while back thanking me for being her Harriet Tubman, guiding her through the underground railroad, to the ultimate goal that she had for herself. So that, and, and
Speaker 3:Kitty
Speaker 2:Things about the work that you and I do. And I'm so glad that we've
Speaker 3:Connected and kitty, that's it, you're opening, you know, you're allowing for this opening of space so that they can see widening a vision. This is a Buddhism yoga, you know, it's expanding a vision that you can see more because stress and anxiety, narrows, narrows
Speaker 2:Your funnel
Speaker 3:Vision. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You
Speaker 3:Can't see the choices. So it's fascinating.
Speaker 2:So Lisa, how can people get in touch with you to learn more about you? Well, I have one other question real quick then tell, so I'm curious, I know you do your workshops in the local places up there in Alexandria. And I, we talked about the possibility that you and I could get together. If I could find a space, we could do something in the Richmond area, but I'm curious. Have you ever thought about, or have you ever done a virtual session with someone? Have you thought about,
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. Through COVID I had to it's it's not my preferred way because of the energy exchange and the clients I was working with, there was a lot of trauma, so I, I just felt it wasn't, it
Speaker 2:Wasn't as effective.
Speaker 3:It wasn't ideal, but sure. Through the pandemic, I was a virtual I've done workshops online. Yes. Yes. I've done it. Okay.
Speaker 2:Excellent. So how can people get in touch with you to learn more about the work that you're doing?
Speaker 3:Um, I have a website, uh, Lisa, by the
Speaker 2:Way.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you. Lisa J Haskins yoga, uh, dot com. So Lisa J Haskins, yoga.com. And then I'm just looking over here because I have a, an upcoming workshop scheduled for April 9th. And that's a Saturday day from three to five 15. And that is at my, the studio. It is at mind, it's called mind, M I N D the mat, M a T. Uh, and it's in Alexandria, Virginia, you can search under workshops. It's already posted. I will be guiding a workshop with them also in June, that's targeting, uh, professionals in education and that's an intention setting goal setting, right. Uh, workshop. That's not up yet, but that will be coming. And I also work at the centers in Alexandria. Okay. So you can search the, the URL was so long. I was just like, you have to search, but I will be connecting it to my website. I just haven't done that yet. Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Well, if you go to the Lisa J Haskins yoga website, you can click on the about section to learn more about Lisa. She also has a section for reviews and contacts. So check out her website, Lisa, I can't thank you enough. Uh, just to give people who are listening, the context of how we came to even be speaking. I wrote an article for the Virginia education association journal a few months ago about stress management because teachers in the middle of the year were already feeling the kind of burnout that they usually don't feel until end of the year. And the, uh, editor for the journal contacted me. He knew I was a certified stress management coach. And he said, do you have any suggestions for our teachers who are struggling with their stress and burnout? So I wrote that article and because you're where you received the journal and read the article and reached out to me, because obviously there is a connection, a synergy between the work that you do with the physical body. And what I do with the professional aspect of people's lives as well. Yeah.
Speaker 3:With when I, when I read that article, I just, it just clicked. I loved it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, thank you for that. Thank you so much for reaching out. Thank you for being willing to do this interview today. I know people will have found a nugget in, in the conversation that will help them to understand the importance of so care and understanding that self care is not selfish. In fact, it's like, if you don't take care of yourself, you're not going to be in any position to take care of anyone else. We have a limited resource that we have to replenish. We use up those resources with the day to day stresses. And if we don't take that time out to address the stress, to relieve and release the stress from our body, from our mind, from our spirit, from our soul, then we end up getting used up and that's where the burnout comes from. And it, and bits, our ability to have relationships with our families, because suddenly we are irritable. We're always cranky. We can't sleep. We're not eating correctly and everything starts to go awry. And it's because we're not taking the time to do the self care that we all need to do in order to live our best lives. So thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for doing this interview. And I know that you and I are going to continue to be, uh, connected from this point on, so thank you again for, yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you, kitty. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Okay. Thanks so much. And for the rest of you who are listening back next week, thanks for being here today.
Speaker 1:So there you have it, an episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back, please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at kitty boy, not@boycoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm kitty boy not. And this is teachers in transition.