In his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey speaks of Sharpening the Saw.

“If you spend the whole day sawing away and yet never find time to actually sharpen your saw,” he says, “you are doing something fundamentally wrong”.

Sometimes, I still teach classes that feel uninspired — and often it’s because I’ve neglected to keep my saw sharp. Keeping your saw sharp is about preserving and enhancing your skills and assets. And, as teachers, there are so many ways we can invest in our own capabilities.

Here are 25 ideas for yoga teachers, wanting to sharpen the saw:

1. Take another teacher’s class of the same style you teach.
2. Take another teacher’s class of a totally different style.
3. Practice on your own to a podcast. I practice to this one at home.
4. Read Books, and then relate them to your classes. (I’ve found a lot of class inspiration from Thrive, Rising Strong, and even Spark Joy
5. Sign up for a weekend training for assisting, children’s yoga, or acro-yoga.
6. Listen to non-yoga podcasts. I love Ted Radio Hour for delivering multiple Ted Talk lessons in one show.
7. Read blogs and websites like Yoga Journal for inspiration on sequencing or meditation.
8. Pay attention to how your favourite YouTube and Instagram yogis are sequencing their asana.
9. Keep a dedicated notebook full of flows and languaging that has landed with you.
10. Learn something new about anatomy. In my highschool kinesiology class we used this awesome anatomy colouring book, and in my teacher training we read The Key Muscles of Yoga by Ray Long.
11. Find a lecture on a yoga topic that interests you. For ideas, check out the Yoga Conference schedule (March 31st to April 3rd in Toronto).
12. Set aside some time to actually revisit all the notes you took in teacher training.
13. If you have the option, volunteer to help out with the teacher training you took.
14. Practice to music.
15. Practice in silence.
16. Pick a pose and learn everything about it. Then teach it (This deck of cards features 50 poses and meditations to choose at random).
17. Explore other Eastern practices like Tai Chi.
18. Sweat it out at a core class.
19. Ask for feedback after class (if you’re more comfortable, ask a friend or another teacher who was in the room). What landed? What didn’t?
20. Practice other ways of being creative. Paint, draw, dance, handwrite, compose, play the piano. Start to see yourself as a creative being.
21. Read traditional texts. This year, I commit to reading The Bhagavad Gita .
22. Use journaling as an outlet.
23. Go to a workshop and learn about all of the foundational elements that go into related postures (even if you already know how to do them).
24. Meditate. If you’re new to meditation, try an app like Headspace.
25. Try something out of your element, and remember what it’s like to be a new student again. Last week I tried Body Art and it was amazing (It’s taught regularly at MISFITSTUDIO and Equinox in Toronto).

How do you find ways to inspire your teaching? Share your saw sharpeners in the comments below.

Laura Fraser is a yoga teacher, digital media specialist & hand-lettering artist. You can learn more about Laura here.