Why I No Longer Teach Yoga Full-Time, Cozy Yoga Life Ep 22

What happens when the path you worked so hard to build stops working?

In this candid episode, I share why I returned to traditional work after 10+ years as a full-time yoga teacher. From the slow unraveling of burnout and perimenopause to the surprising clarity that came with structure, this is a story of nervous system repair, identity shifts, and choosing alignment over ego.

We’ll talk about menopause unmasking ADHD, discovering your limits in midlife, and why going back to work wasn’t a failure—but a return to wholeness.

If you're navigating change, burnout, or a quiet craving for something different—this one’s for you.

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Transcript

0:03

I am Shannon Caldwell, and this is Cozy Yoga Life. I've spent the last 25 years living and teaching yoga, and I'm here to help you bring that wisdom into your daily life with clarity, comfort, and always a dash of coziness. Welcome back, Cozy Crew. Today I want to share a story that's very personal: why I went back to work. After 10 years of working for myself, I took a job with a company. And if you had told me a few years ago, I would've laughed. Or panicked. Or probably done both. So this is a story about burnout, menopause identity reinvention, and how sometimes we have to let go of what we thought our life would look like to create space that actually supports us. How changing our minds in midlife makes room for other kinds of success. And if you're struggling with burnout or financial instability, and things feel uncertain or heavy, I hope this episode helps you feel less alone. Let's go back in time to March 2020. I just wrapped an in-person yoga teacher training before COVID shut everything down. Like so many others, I pivoted and moved teacher training online and I did my best to keep things going. But each round-- for a combination of factors-- the number of participants continued to dwindle. The energy wasn't the same over Zoom. We were all juggling working from home, homeschooling kids, and totally anxious about toilet paper and dying from a pandemic. Many people lost their jobs and their incomes were drastically reduced, which meant they held off on extras, like teacher training. I want to mention that my family was blessed during this time because my husband kept his job making enough to cover all of our expenses. But I've always been an independent person and I have an intrinsic need to contribute financially, so it doesn't all fall on my husband's shoulders. And I was doing what I could. But I was relying on my savings more and more, and it was taking its toll. In July 2022, I had what I call my bathroom breakdown. It was late morning. I was still in my robe, and my chest got tight. The blood started roaring through my ears. I knew my blood pressure was going wonky, so I went back to bed, which only made all of the sensations worse. I got lightheaded and nauseous, and for 30 long, horrible minutes I debated whether I needed to go to the ER as I sat on the cold tile of my bathroom. I finally got brave and called my husband into the bathroom where I literally broke down with my head in his lap and him quietly freaking out on the inside. He did not recognize the woman sobbing in his arms. As that tidal wave of emotion and some sensations subsided, I realized I'd had a full blown panic attack. In the clarity of the aftermath, I knew something wasn't right. I told my husband, I am not okay. So, of course I did all the doctor's appointments to make sure, in fact, nothing was wrong. When none of the doctors could pinpoint any physical issues, I turned to therapy. As my therapist helped me climb out of what I thought was worsening anxiety, we realized my bathroom breakdown wasn't just about one thing, it was a collision of everything. My nervous system was fried from prolonged stress of a global pandemic. I was living off savings and constantly worrying about money, which only worsened the strain. And then menopause hit. A little sidebar here: for women, estrogen is one of the hormones that helps us deal with stress. And when we go into menopause, estrogen significantly declines, which means our ability to deal with stress also declines. Losing estrogen lessens women's resiliency. Now back to therapy and my incredible therapist who got me through to the other side. She suggested something I did not want to hear. She asked me, what if you got a part-time job just to relieve one area of stress? And I resisted that suggestion with everything in me. Because taking a part-time job felt like failure. It felt like betraying the life I'd built for myself. For 12 years, I'd been a full-time yoga teacher and trainer. I'd left the corporate world and built something that felt aligned. Going back to work for someone else felt like going backward. Like giving up. I also questioned and blamed myself. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough. Maybe I didn't want it enough. What would people think? What did I think? And the last time I worked for a company. Worse job ever. I lasted six months and stayed only because my husband and I were building a house at the time and needed the work history and income to qualify for our mortgage. But now, as my savings account continued to shrink, I agreed to look. Half-heartedly. And if my situation didn't improve, I'd get serious about looking for a job after the new year. Next came the dreaded resume update. I hadn't searched for a job in more than a decade. Did people still submit resumes or is there some newfangled way of applying for jobs? But thankfully resumes are still the gold standard. But now how do I display my time as an entrepreneur? How to explain why I was looking for a job after owning my own business. I felt like I would be unhirable, and that being self-employed would work against me. Unfortunately, I had a familiar tale: loss of income and dwindling customer base due to the pandemic. So now with my crisp new resume, a solid reason for job hunting, and a list of personal conditions that job listings had to meet, I started applying to one or two part-time jobs a week. One submission turned into a phone interview with HR and then an invitation to come to the office and interview with who would be my boss. 24 hours later, after I agreed, I called the HR rep back and declined the in-person interview. There was still a part of me clinging to the belief that working for someone else meant failure. That I was somehow less of a yoga teacher if I did. Then I came across the listing. A part-time role doing behind the scenes work in a training department. Super part-time. Super flexible. Plus it met all my criteria, so I thought, what the hell? I had a 15-minute online interview with the COO. The next day they invited me in for an in-person interview. It was a small company with half the staff located in the headquarters office and the other half spread across the U.S. I hit it off with the three people I met, and for the first time, something felt right. Not forced. Not desperate. Just aligned. After the interview, I made sure to do all the things: proper follow up email after the interview, letting them know how much I enjoyed it, how exciting the opportunity seemed, and emphasizing again how I thought I could help the organization. Obviously I got the job. The job was as needed, which was perfect. It gave me a little income and some breathing room while I figured out what was next. I thought next meant in my yoga business. But four months working for this company, they opened up a full-time position in the education department and I jumped at it. I already knew what kind of company it was. I knew the people. I knew the vibe and culture. It would expand my responsibilities in an area I'd spent the last 20 years in. That decision became my next. The full-time position has been the best of both worlds. Structure, stability, and a consistent income combined with flexible work from home, unlimited days off, so I could still attend school functions and be there for my son. It also gave me benefits, retirement and travel opportunities. I'm constantly amazed at how this company treats its employees. Our CEO's motto is, take care of the employees and they will take care of the company. There was one more surprise benefit that came with this job. The space to heal. Space to take care of myself again, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Space to breathe and fall in love with yoga again. What originally felt like a step backward was a step into alignment. I no longer had to figure out what came next. I was there. When people would ask about yoga teacher training, I would always tell them, it's never too late and you're never too old, and taking this job reminded me of that same thing. Vera Wang didn't design her first dress until she was 40. Before that, she was a figure skater and a journalist at Vogue. Julia Child didn't publish her first cookbook until she was 49, and before that she worked in advertising. Tony Morrison was an editor at Random House before she shifted careers and published her first novel at 39, and went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Martha Stewart was a stockbroker and caterer before launching her domestic lifestyle brand in her 40s. There's no timeline for reinvention. No age limit on becoming who you're meant to be. Or taking a next step or shifting careers. Midlife doesn't have to be a crisis. It can be a catalyst. We have to remember that we're not broken, we're evolving, we're becoming wiser. It's okay if you're navigating a season where your old life doesn't quite fit anymore. So many of us are. And that brings us to you, Cozy Crew. Are you clinging to an identity that no longer fits? What would ease feel like if you gave yourself permission to choose it? What if you didn't double down but allowed something new to bloom? There's no shame in changing course. There's no failure in choosing ease. You don't have to burn out to prove your worth. Sometimes alignment looks like a steady paycheck. Sometimes it looks like stepping away from your dream to remember why you loved it in the first place. So my advice? Take the pause. Take the job. Take care of yourself. That wraps another episode of Cozy Yoga Life. Until next time, may you move with intention, rest with purpose, and live in alignment. Remember, it's all yoga.