Yoga and Money...What Does This Mean For Us?
Yoga and Money: Part Three
WHY IS THIS SO COMPLICATED?
There is an inherently complicated nature when working at the intersection of being a spiritual teacher and needing to make a living wage. As yoga teachers we live in this place, and I imagine that almost all of us find some part of this situation challenging.Every week I have teachers reaching out to me with nuts and bolts questions about how to make a living as a yoga teacher. I began to write a series of blog posts answering these questions and I realized I could not stay silent about the challenges we face when we choose to support ourselves and our families by offering healing and spiritual teachings. {Check out Part One and Part Two if you missed those!}We live in a capitalist consumer culture. We are borrowing from spiritual traditions and healing modalities that were birthed in a culture that supported the healers in the community. The way yoga and its related sciences are taught in our culture will absolutely be different, but I don’t think it is inherently bad or wrong. It will take our attention and care and skillfulness to honor the teachings, AND take care of each other and ourselves. Growing up in the West, and in America in particular, we know there is an emphasis on individualism, and less on the care of the collective. I believe there are ways we can make a career out of sharing these teachings in a way that benefits all, but it requires a perspective that allows for subtleties.
WHAT ARE OTHER PEOPLE SAYING?
Many people have written about the strange intersection of yoga and money and their views are as disparate as the many styles of yoga that exist. Some authors write about how unfortunately difficult it is to make a living as a yoga teacher, others will write about how wrong it is to expect to be paid for teaching yoga, and still more discuss how all we need to do is “manifest abundance” and the cash will start flowing it.This all sounds like jiggery pokery to me.The latest article on the topic of yoga and money was in NY Magazine. Michelle Goldberg wrote about the “Brutal Economics” of being a yoga teacher.This article frames the discussion in a completely black and white way. She explains that you have two options if you are a career yoga teacher. Either you can be exhausted, teaching 20 group classes a week for no money, or you can be an Instagram Model {with questionable teaching skills and ethics} selling online yoga classes and making multiple six figures a year. As she sees it, career yoga teachers are either wealthy rock stars, or are completely broke and overworked.
Well, I say, “What about the middle path??”
I have been supporting myself by teaching yoga full time in two very expensive cities for 10 years. I am not exhausted or depleted. I'm not making multiple six figures {or anywhere close} but I do have health insurance, a retirement account and a lifestyle that feels safe and comfortable. I know many people who are full time yoga teachers, and while they are not celebrities, they make enough money to comfortably support themselves and their families.With a little creativity, clear passion and direction, and a lot of hard work, I know it is possible to make a living as a yoga teacher.Let me be clear: the “hard work” I am referring to here is not marketing, branding, or even business skills. {Although at some point in your career, those will become helpful.}My teaching is what has made me a successful teacher. I taught 20+ private clients a week before I even had a website! Brand new teachers will almost certainly need other sources of income while they hone their teaching skills, gain experience, and make community connections, and that seems entirely appropriate to me.But as I see it, if you are willing to do the work to make yourself a better and better teacher, there are more than enough students who desperately need you and your meaningful, skillful teachings.
OUR INNER WORK
There is a wide spectrum of attitudes about money within the yoga world. There is a large subset of would-be teachers who are deeply inspired by the spiritual practices, long to share that with others, and are confused, upset, or off put by the intersection of being a spiritual teacher and needing to make a living wage. I totally understand this strange crossover place. Much of what we see in the bottom-line driven culture that runs through Corporate America is not at all aligned with our values of taking good care of each other and our planet.On the other end of the spectrum are people who see the potential in a fast growing market and create {often entirely online} businesses to fill a need or take advantage of an opportunity. Sometimes this is done skillfully with the purest of intentions. Often it is not. This can make some people feel that there is no place for quiet, authentic teachers in this new yoga world, and they choose to opt out entirely.
As is so common with me, I fall squarely down the middle between these two extremes....
MY THOUGHTS
I have found yoga in all forms {asana, meditation, pranayama, intentional living} to have radically changed the way I experience myself and the world. My spiritual practice has completed shifted the way I am able to show up in all my most important relationships, and has given me a new lens to see and feel the deep interdependence of all beings. My spiritual practice has, of course, totally changed my life. I deeply value these practices, and as an asana teacher for more than 10 years, I feel wildly blessed to have been able to witness and support so much meaningful change in the lives of my students.
I love the work that I do and I am grateful and proud that I get to support myself {and one day, a family} doing this work full time. I do not feel conflicted about this at all.
Are we “selling the sacred”? Or are we teaching, helping professionals? I’d like to take the stance of the latter. I’d like to say that as yoga teachers we are helping professionals with a beautiful, sacred lineage that supports and informs our teachings.In our culture, yoga teachers function in similar ways to other helping professionals: we study our craft, we practice and live in accordance with our values, we study teaching methodology, and we continue to take continuing education classes to deepen our teaching skills.We do not have the same rigorous imposed standards as other industries such as psychotherapy, massage therapy, or acupuncture...
however, our work can help and heal in the same way. Even though there is not a large governing body that has high standards for us, we must hold ourselves to extremely high standards. Part of holding ourselves to high standards means we must carry ourselves and behave as professionals.
This means that we must support ourselves, and support ourselves WELL.You will be a better teacher if you can afford to participate in high quality trainings. Your students benefit from your continued ability to put healthy food on the table and pay for your own high quality self care and health care. Having time and space for your own spiritual practice and study will mean you have more teachings of depth and insight to offer your students.Open your ears, and hear me when I say this:: Your students will benefit from your financial stability. You will be able to help more students, on a deeper level, when you do not have to run yourself ragged just to pay your rent. That means that you must be paid for your teaching, and you must be paid appropriately for your level of experience and training.Sit with that. Give it time to weave its way into your heart.
I KNOW, I KNOW...BUT!
Yes, the intersection of yoga and money is inherently complicated. Yes, the yoga world is growing and changing rapidly, and not always in positive ways. Yes, celebrity culture has made it’s way into the yoga world.And yet.And yet, I know it is possible to make a life and a living offering teachings that you love. I have been doing it for more than a decade. If you are feeling frustrated or disheartened or disgusted with the state of the yoga world I understand all of that. I really do.But I love learning and studying and practicing and teaching SO MUCH. I don’t want to take the time to sit around being bummed out. I’ve got a full day of teaching ahead of me!I had one private client able to balance in high lunge for the first time today!I had another client use pranayama to have the best night sleep he has had in years last night!And tonight in my group class I will work with the Buddhist concept of RAIN to deal with strong emotions and teach some challenging/strange transitions between standing poses.How lucky am I that this is my life? This work is too much fun, it is too fulfilling, and too uplifting to spend too much time being frustrated with what is happening on social media.{Although I am all for awareness, and for calling out hypocrisy when it shows up, so if that is your gig, don’t let me stop you! Just don’t let it keep you from teaching, if that is what you want to do.}I would love for you, as a thoughtful, serious teacher, to join me in a movement of yoga teachers whose modus operandi is one of wholeheartedness, serious work ethic and non-crabbiness.Will you join me? Please, ask me a question or let me know what you think. Sending love to you my dears.