Bloom Yoga Victoria

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Victoria, BC
Bloom Yoga Victoria

My name is Melissa Krieger and I'm a yoga and movement instructor in Victoria, BC. I teach on Zoom, in-person at Oak Bay Recreation and on doyogawithme.com.

I teach fun classes that help people stay active, age strong and reduce stress.

01/28/2026

25 years of teaching, 25 tips to be a great teacher. Tip number 17!

There is no hierarchy with different poses and exercises, there are just different options! Offer these different options in a way that doesn’t involve how advanced, or how flexible someone is.

If you notice yourself teaching that way, try switching up your language and see how it feels to take out the idea of levels or ability.

Let me know how it goes in the comments!

01/19/2026

Out of office for the week! No classes, no subs, no Zoom! On a yoga retreat in Mexico (my favourite country!) and loving life. See you next week!

01/15/2026

25 years of teaching, 25 tips to be a great teacher. Tip number 16!

Know yourself! Your strengths and your weaknesses. All of us will naturally shine in one part of our job, and struggle with another. And that’s so normal!

In the parts where you struggle, get help or farm it out. That way you can focus on what you are really good at, and like doing more! Win win!

I couldn’t get the captions to work and I’ve been procrastinating with this video, so I’m posting without.

01/04/2026

25 years of teaching, 25 tips to be a great teacher. Tip number 15!

You need time off of teaching once in a while. This is hard! I struggled with this the most when I was a new teacher. I said yes to every opportunity to teach and burned out pretty quickly. It’s also tricky when you get paid to teach, and generally don’t get paid time off.

I’ve burned out several times and have learned some strategies over the years. I generally don’t teach on the weekends (unless it’s a retreat) and follow a Monday to Friday schedule. I also take time off during natural breaks in the calendar like over the holidays and over the summer. My classes are the busiest from September - December and again from January - May. Things start to slow down in June, July is pretty quiet and August is the slowest. My future goal is to take all of August off teaching.

In the years that I’ve been teaching I’ve gone through a divorce and the death of my step dad. I took a little bit of time off during those difficult periods but wish I was able to take off more time. My mom passed last May, and she had been sick for some time. I had a small emergency savings account and used that money to take 5 weeks off of teaching to grieve. It was worth it. Sometimes you do have to teach through really hard things, and we can do hard things, but I’m grateful I could take a break.

If you can swing it I highly recommend having periods of time - a weekend, a week, a few weeks - to rest and regroup. And not just because you are struggling, but because we all need time downtime.

01/02/2026

In recovery mode after hosting a NYE / 50th birthday party in honour of my husband, Nick!

I had big plans on a nice Christmas photo with a holiday message but here we are - a little tired and on cleanup duty on January 1st.

This was first Christmas without my mom and it was hard. I knew it would be, but that didn’t make it easier. I’m feeling relieved it’s over and I know I’m not alone. Holidays are tough for so many folks.

Wishing us all a bright and happy new year.

12/17/2025

25 years of teaching, 25 tips to be a great teacher. Tip number 14!

Don’t teach when you are sick! Full stop. It’s gross, you could get other people sick, and it models poor self care.

I know (I KNOW!) it’s hard to lose the income. I don’t get paid if I don’t teach. But I also know if I don’t take enough time off to get better I will just be prolonging my illness.

I bet your students care about you, and want you to be well and healthy. Stay home when you’re sick!

12/12/2025

25 years of teaching, 25 tips to be a great teacher. Tip number 13!

Get better at communicating with people and occasionally managing conflict. This is part of the job. You are going to have things come up in class that you need to deal with. For me that has looked like conflict between students (it happens!), chatty folks who are distracting, dealing with people with body odour (tough one), and dealing with folks in revealing clothes (Wear what you want to yoga, but I shouldn’t be at risk of seeing your junk!) The issue that I deal with the most is people being very much particular about where they are in the room, and the space that they like.

Sometimes you have to deal with things in the moment, other times you can deal with it with an email, a phone call, or ask that person if they can chat privately after class.

Having good counsel has been super helpful to me. My husband is great at communication and I often talk the issue out with him and figure out how to proceed. Having other yoga teacher friends to discuss things with is helpful too.

Remember if you work in a studio or recreation centre you’ll have a studio owner or manager, or a supervisor to help you as well. If you are having issues they are there to help you too!

Good luck! This is a part of the job that you learn as you go. I did not learn about managing folks and dealing with conflict in any teacher trainings that I have done.

12/09/2025

25 years of teaching, 25 tips to be a great teacher. Tip number 12!

Feedback! Is it important? Yes! Can it be helpful? Sure? Do you need to listen to all the feedback you receive and keep changing things? NO!

Hot take - but I definitely don’t listen to all the feedback I receive. I consider the source - a supervisor? A long time student? A new person I’ve never met before or don’t know well? These are all things to consider.

I also think about how many times have I heard something like this? If I keep getting the same feedback over and over again it might be time to shift something.

But also consider for some folks “giving feedback” is a way to get you to teach/adjust/change to what they like. But what do you like?! Some folks just want you to adjust for them, but who else does it serve?

Going back to another point - be confident! Be confident in what you teach and know. You do not need to change your whole vibe for someone else. Maybe that student needs a different teacher, a studio, or type of class. You can’t be everyone’s cup of tea (and that’s ok!)

12/07/2025

Me in my natural habitat, singing into a mike, surrounded by funny women.

12/04/2025

25 years of teaching, 25 tips to be a great teacher. Tip number 10 AND 11!

This one is 2 parts - first to be a confident teacher and second is to be confident enough to know that it’s ok to not know everything!

A confident teacher can instil confidence in your students. YOU are the teacher, and this is YOUR class. You know your stuff! If confidence doesn’t come naturally for you work on building it.

And remember that you don’t need to know everything! It’s not realistic, and is it even possible to know everything?! Congratulations if you do! lol.

I think it takes confidence to admit to not knowing it all. To be a lifelong student, and to continue being curious.

This feels important to me to share because I struggled in my first few years of personal training, feeling like I didn’t know enough. It was hard to get over and admit that I didn’t know all the answers. It felt liberating to answer “I don’t know” instead of feeling like I should know it all.

12/03/2025

25 years of teaching, 25 tips to be a great teacher. Tip number 9!

It’s ok to change your mind, your opinion, the way you teach. It’s important to keep evolving and trying new things. It’s easy to get stuck in that pattern of always doing things the same way, teaching the same thing year after year.

It’s hard to let things go! I’ve had tough decisions over the years choosing to drop classes, change where I teach, and change how I teach. It’s hard to make a change that will disappoint people.

You will probably lose some people, your new style might not resonate with everyone. But if you are passionate about what you are teaching you’ll find your people that love what you do!

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Victoria, BC

Website

http://www.bloomyogavictoria.ca/

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