Before You Quit Your Job to Become a Yoga Teacher — A Word to the Wise
About to trade in your soul-crushing job for a glamorous life as a yoga instructor? Here’s the truth that nobody has the heart to tell you.
Literally hundreds of people are turning to teaching yoga as a full-time profession. Taking a look at the current situation in the corporate world may provide us with an insight as to why…
Universities are churning out more graduates than ever, making the majority of degrees all but useless. Due to population growth and an increase in qualifications, the job market is failing, and even if you manage to get a job in the corporate world, it is usually unfulfilling, purposeless, and has nothing to do with your studies.
As they start to wake up to the realities of the conventional, mind-numbing nine-to-five, more people are looking for a way out of the rat race.
Ah, The Fairytale Life of a Yoga Teacher
Our social media feeds are filled with bendy yoga teachers and travel influencers, claiming that anyone can pack up their desk, walk out of their office and live a simple life of oxymoronic luxury.
When you go to a yoga class, the teacher seems calm, peaceful, and collected. You look at them in awe wishing you could find the same contentment. They speak in flowery language, using words like ‘manifest,’ ‘abundance,’ and ‘scoop the heart,’ making you wonder if understanding the meaning of these terms is the key to happiness.
It appears that becoming a yoga teacher provides an alternative way to earn a living by practicing what you believe in; teaching others how to find inner peace through movement, mindfulness, and meditation. Surely, it is the ultimate life-hack!
Reality Check
However, quitting your job and becoming a yoga teacher is not as simple as it seems. Large quantities of newly qualified yoga teachers are graduating from teacher training courses at an alarming rate. According to the Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance, the number of yoga teachers in America has doubled in the past six years. This means there is vastly more competition for regular class teaching slots in studios.
Contrary to belief, doing a teacher training does NOT prepare you to teach. Yes, it gives you an insight into the philosophy, the right language, and the correct alignment — but it will not tell you how to deal with the clients, the highs and lows of teaching, or how to manage the business side of your career. Most yoga teachers find they need to take additional courses either in business or in their chosen yoga niche.
6 Tips on Starting a Yoga Teaching Career
Before you quit your job to run off and follow your bliss, take some time to go through the following steps — you’ll be glad you did!
1. Be Financially Prepared
Whether its ethical or not, a decent training course costs anywhere between $3000-$7000. Not to mention the added cost of flights if you decide to take it abroad.
Taking a course overseas may have a perceived air of ‘authenticity,’ but it does not necessarily guarantee a higher quality of training. Most ashrams and retreats are just businesses designed to make you spend money rather than you educate you on how to be a good yoga teacher.
Many yoga teachers actually find it more productive to do a more prolonged, less expensive, training in their own country, rather than a costly intensive abroad. This gives the trainees more time to practice and develop their teaching skills by getting the necessary feedback as their teaching grows over the course. It also allows the new teachers to form long-standing friendships and build strong ties to the local yoga community, which can help tremendously when it comes to teaching full-time.
Once you have forked out for the training and decided you want to pursue a career in yoga, you will need to front for the essentials. If you are going to teach in a studio, many things will be taken care of. However, your earning potential will likely be limited. If you are going to teach independently, you’ll need to purchase business cards, yoga mats, props, and arrange space to teach in. Your teaching life should be seen as a business that requires financial care, especially in its initial stages.
2. Be Socially Prepared
Transitioning from a nine-to-five to full-time teaching is a shock to many new teachers because of the difference in working hours.
As a new teacher, a lot of your time will be dedicated to researching, visiting studios, and making contacts. Once you have regular classes set up, you will most likely be teaching in the mornings and evenings, with the addition of weekend workshops and intensives. The middle of the day will be dedicated to admin, planning, and private clients.
The life of a freelancer can be a lonely existence. You won’t have colleagues or people to gossip with by the coffee machine. You can still attend the Friday night drinks but at the expense of being fully present for your students in your 9 am class the next morning.
3. Network Your Ass Off
For a lucky few, it is as easy as completing a teacher training course, then landing your dream job in a local studio. However, for the majority of teachers, this is not the case.
If you make up the latter, you will need to spend a good portion of your time networking and building a following; visiting studios, sending emails and attending workshops… and that is just the beginning.
You will meet many different (and difficult) people on your journey to building a loyal following.
- You will have students who swear that you have changed their life and seem eager to continue, only to never show up to class again.
- You will teach people who dislike your style of teaching and leave you negative reviews.
- Some students will attend just for the physical practice, while others for the transformational elements.
A good teacher will know how to cover all grounds when it comes to providing what the students need. You must be diverse yet direct to provide an effective practice.
4. Make Time for Your Own Practice
Many teachers find that, as their teaching schedule grows, they lose the time to attend classes themselves. Introducing self-practice into your daily routine is essential, but it does not help you develop your own teaching style.
The only way to grow as a teacher is to keep learning. You will need to make time to attend classes, workshops, and even retreats. Taking the time to broaden your own knowledge of yoga will benefit your students and allow you to excel in your teaching techniques. This obviously will incur a significant investment.
5. Get Real About Social Media
Social media can serve as a powerful tool. However, it is not a requirement of the job role, nor will it make you a better teacher. In fact, the juxtaposition of yoga and Instagram is almost laughable.
Yoga is about non-judgment, the union of body, mind, and spirit, and about letting go of our egos. Some of the best teachers out there don’t even use social media. Or, if they do, their posts are either not yoga related, or are few and far between.
Instagram is specifically designed to be addictive. People post photos of themselves in asanas all trying to outdo each other. Whether they are competing for likes, or just raising brand awareness, it’s difficult to tell. Either way, growing your online presence will not bring you more students — the only thing that will is genuine human connection.
6. Learn to Deal with Stereotypes
Each profession comes with its own stereotypes, but it can be argued that yoga teachers have the most challenging one when it comes to not disappointing their students.
For some reason, people expect yoga teachers to be ‘enlightened beings,’ free from stress, worry, and negativity. This expectation is ludicrous. Teaching yoga is not a catalyst for enlightenment, nor is it part of the job description, and it is normal for teachers to fall short of students expectations in this area.
Even when you have become a yoga teacher, you will still be susceptible to highs and lows of everyday life. You will experience loss and sadness, anger, depression, and negativity. And, you will experience it with the added pressure of everyone around you expecting you to stay balanced.
Practicing yoga does help with equanimity. However, many people go through teacher training and change their perspectives, only to resort back to their usual reactiveness after the effects of the course have worn off.
Conclusion
Becoming a yoga teacher is not an easy way out of a mundane life. It comes with its own challenges, lessons, and routines — it is merely another job role. What’s to say you won’t feel the same dissatisfaction you felt in your old job once you have settled into your new yoga life? Teaching yoga should not be a method of escape, but rather a way to enrich your own life as well as the lives of your students.
To be a good teacher you have to recognize that your practice exists as a way to spread light, connection, and kindness. If your desire to teach comes from a place of boredom, then perhaps you are not ready to take the plunge.
