New teachers or people who are considering a teacher training often ask me if it’s possible to make a good living as a Yoga Instructor. Many yoga teachers will fire back with a definitive “no, it is not!” But I disagree: it is possible. Certainly, there are things in the yoga world as it exists today that do make it difficult, but with the right tools you can earn a comfortable living by teaching yoga…
THE TROUBLE WITH MONEY
Many yoga teachers feel cynical about ‘yoga’ as a lucrative career option, and I completely understand why. Our relationship to money is complicated. Depending on your cultural background and your upbringing, you may have been taught that “money must be hard earned”, or that it only flows to people who are lucky, or somehow corrupt. Or, you might believe that making a lot of money is the only way to find true happiness.
Layer on top of all that, the additional and confusing attitudes about money in the yoga world. As a yoga teacher, you are part of a multi-billion dollar industry that is growing rapidly. Yet it is common to hear from peers that money is a dirty word or that it is somehow “un-yogic”. How many times have you heard someone say “”?
Interestingly, most times I hear this kind of thing, it’s always from a brand new or part-time teacher who doesn’t rely on teaching yoga to pay their bills. Time and time again, this camp feels free to announce their spiritual superiority over those of us choose to teach yoga for a living.
While no one in their right mind would turn down the pay-check they get from their nine-to-five office job, many yoga teachers still have divided feelings about earning money by providing a valuable service to their communities.
For me, and probably many others, the idea that yoga teachers shouldn’t “make too much” came directly from some studio owners I was working with in my early days of teaching. They convinced me that because yoga was my spiritual practice, I should never expect to cover the rent by teaching a few classes. In fact, if I was a seriousteacher and “true” yogi, I would happily teach as many classes as possible in order to just barely make ends meet. Of course, the “teach for very little and teach as much as possible” model that was being impressed upon me just so happened to be extremely lucrative for the studio I worked for.
Once I saw this racket for what it was, I stopped working at these types of places. I sought out studios and clients that respected me and my experience, and compensated me appropriately. But it wasn’t easy to go against the grain and become my own advocate.
WHAT YOGA TEACHERS NEED TO DO
The number one thing teachers need to do to destroy the myth that teaching yoga can’t provide a sustainable livelihood, is: speak up.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve listened to my peers complain relentlessly of feeling undervalued or disrespected but then never bring their issues up with the people that they felt were responsible.
In any relationship, whether personal or professional a sure fire way for something to snowball out of control is to think that you’re seeing the whole picture, while never giving the other party an opportunity to share their perspective and potentially do things to fix a problem. While it may be healthy to get things off your chest to your friends and family, it’s not going to solve anything if you aren’t actually bringing up the issues with the people that are directly involved. But it’s your responsibility to do that. For example:
- If you’ve been teaching at a studio for ten years and see a brand new teacher waltzing in and get a class time that you’ve been asking for, talk to the studio manager.
- If you’ve been teaching the same busy class for years and think you deserve some more money for it, ask for a raise.
- If you don’t feel your classes or workshops are getting much promotion by the studio, speak up (and/or learn how to do it yourself (like with YogaTrail!).
We can’t always know what is going on behind the scenes. Just as you have moments of being unconscious, so does everyone else. The worst thing that could happen by having a conversation is you get a “no” about that new class or the raise. But at that point you’ll have, at least opened the lines of communication. Then you can move forward able to make a more fully informed decision about whether to continue work with a particular client or studio.
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT YOU
Speaking up for yourself will not only make you feel more in control of your own experience, but it will also begin to change the landscape of the entire yoga teaching profession, and contribute to helping it become more sustainable for all instructors.
You are working with other human beings (not three-headed monsters). The status quo will change when we all consciously decide to change it. In most other professions, the status quo involves a living wage, paid vacation time, health benefits and a pay-scale that’s based on experience and seniority. The yoga world isn’t there yet, but there is no reason we can’t get there in time.
Speaking up and being clear about what you need and what you offer to the studios and clients you work with will help us all to shape the future of the yoga industry. After all, without a healthy front-line of knowledgeable and inspiring teachers, there would be no yoga industry. The next time you feel guilty about being paid a fair rate for a class by a person or business that is growing wealthy from your work, remember that it’s not just about you: your next move affects us all.
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