Typical Day
Ashley Tanga (or Ash, as her friends know her) is awake with the sunrise at 5:45AM, sitting on her porch in a stylish yet breathable lycra tank top and equally stretchy pair of yoga pants. Since quitting her corporate public relations job to focus on becoming a yoga instructor three years ago, much of Ash's life has turned into an exercise in flexibility.
Sometimes she misses the perks of corporate life, though—including the large and steady paycheck that came with it. As she makes her morning reflection, she acknowledges that she wouldn't trade what she's got now for anything. Especially not ever having to wear heels to work—that alone makes the reduced paycheck seem well worth it.
After reflection, Ash makes a berry smoothie with extra flax and hemp. She gets a considerable amount of nutrition into that small package, and she's able to portion the large batch out for a longer period. She's been stretching her budget like a lunge that always needs just one extra inch to reach full extension. She washes her blender down and heads out the door at 6:30AM.
At 6:55AM, Ash walks through the doors of the first of four yoga studios she'll teach at around town today. She's never late to a class, and her first one—Vinyasa Flow, perhaps the most widely practiced yoga in the U.S.—starts at 7:00AM on the dot.
The class goes smoothly, and afterwards one student keeps Ash to talk about how she's been feeling pretty down lately. Ash listens with as much sympathy and compassion that she can muster. Due to the cathartic nature of yoga, she's often a sounding board for other people's problems. She just hopes people realize she's a yoga instructor and not a trained therapist.
Ash finally breaks away from her student at 8:10AM, hoping she'll still have time to make it to her next class all the way across town. When she became a yoga instructor, Ash knew she couldn't support the same sort of free-spending lifestyle she had before.
So it was goodbye car-driven independence and hello to public transportation. She tells herself often that she feels good about the choice she made. She's lying to herself, of course, but she meditates about it and moves on.
With only a small hiccup on the second bus (why don't those things carry spare tires?), Ash makes it to her 10:00AM. Unlike the swanky, stylish gym from her first session, this one's a little more cash-strapped.
Her clients here are less familiar with yoga practice, and she spends a lot of her class going over (and over, and over) the rudiments of yoga, stopping when needed to adjust her clients' poses. Ash doesn't mind—part of the teacher's job is to teach, after all. She just hopes next time at least one of them will show some improvement.
By the end of class, at 11:15AM, Ash's stomach is rumbling. She pulls out her simple brie cheese and apple sandwich and a bag of baby carrots, ready to relish the two-hour break in the middle of her day. While she eats she flips through the most recent issue of her yoga magazine. It's all yoga, all the time for Ash—except when she picks up a trashy celebrity magazine instead. We all have our guilty pleasures.
With some time to herself before her next class, Ash responds to a few emails on her phone. She doesn't carry her old beat-up laptop with her, and because she isn't affiliated with any one particular gym she doesn't have an office space to hold a desk computer. So her smartphone it is. At least this way she gets to write off that expensive data plan she bought as a business expense.
Ash is a savvy yogi.
Ash pulls up to the senior home at around 1:45PM. Sighing, she tries to remind herself of all the things she loves about her job. Working at the senior home is one of the most rewarding aspects of the career, but it can also be one of the more tedious.
The clients are...of a certain age, so they don't necessarily move as well as some others. But if anyone needs yoga, Ash knows it's these brittle-boned folk. She'll count it as a win if some of them remember her name this time.
After wrapping up at the senior home, Ash grabs a bus back home to her apartment. She gets there at 3:30PM and spends the next couple hours reading. Three classes in one day can really take their toll—not to mention the travel in between—so she unwinds when she can.
For dinner she heats up an inexpensive can of hearty vegetable chili with some pita, hummus, and carrots on the side. It may be cheap, but it's still delicious.
To end the evening, Ash jumps on the computer at 6:30PM and spends some time online. No, she's not wasting the evening scrolling through Facebook (not for more than a few minutes anyway). Instead, she updates her blog.
She realized when she quit the corporate PR world that it didn't mean she had to stop doing PR. She just does it for herself as a yoga professional on her own web portal. It's an opportunity for her to enjoy another level of yoga; she gives advice on everything from the best snacks to eat after a session to useful anecdotes from her classes.
She even brings in a small chunk of ad revenue, which really helps fill in the gaps in her income.
Ash tries to focus as best she can, but her head aches and her body's sore. When she's finally done with the blog, the clock still shows an almost outrageously early 9:15PM. It may not be late, but Ash is sure she'll feel better when she's better rested, so she wants to get right to it. Within moments of climbing into bed and laying her head on the pillow, she's out like a light.