The Value of Yoga

Ask any yoga teacher why they teach yoga and I bet you the answer is not, “for the money.” However being a yoga teacher you are providing a service, you are proving knowledge in a safe and comfortable environment and therefore you are not wrong to ask for an exchange; whether it is money, trade, or even fresh veggies and farm eggs, of which I personally and gladly accept as payment!

But lately I’ve been struggling with this concept of “getting paid” for yoga. Just like I did when I began my training as a massage therapist. For me being a nurturer is simply a part of who I am, I really do want to help everyone feel better, safer and more comfortable in the world and in themselves. My massage instructor put it like this, “It is an exchange of energy. You are giving energy to a person and you have the right to receive energy in return. You can decide what and how to receive that energy.”  So what is enough? A hug? Ten dollars? Sixty? The piece of mind knowing you helped someone in need? And right now I have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that I no longer know. I can no longer feel what feels right about accepting energy for my teaching. I don’t want it to be money but I have bills to pay.

I am a “modern yogi.” I don’t live at an ashram or in a mountain cave, I live in the world. I have rent to pay, groceries to buy, heat and water bills. So when life in the real world gets hard I start to fret about things like dwindling class sizes and the value of time and no shows. When my mind goes there my yoga stops being about teaching and the exchange of energy and it becomes a job. And that is exactly what I do not want my yoga to be.

So now what? Can I, self proclaimed, queen of happy mediums find a comfortable compromise? Am I willing to fall back into the hustle of self promotion and studio advertising? That all seems very businesslike to me and exhausting. In fact last year I burned out completely doing all that and stopped teaching for a while. Maybe I started back too soon, maybe I started back the wrong way. Operating in a pattern already proved wrong.

So I’m reevaluating and shifting my perspective. When I opened my studio years ago it was a place dedicated to building Community and for a while it was amazing! A place where people of my tiny town came together, where we shared and celebrated each others gifts and talents and it truly was a beautiful exchange of energy. I think now is the time to get back to that. Actually, I know it is and that means making some changes. Some terrifying and some exciting but it is time. Community is my home.

Recently, while crying in a friends arm chair, he told me that he looks to me for inspiration. He said that he is learning as part of his own journey how important Community is and that I was his example of how that can be created. I was flattered but could not see through myself doubt enough to believe him. Now I can see it. Being a yoga teacher is not my job; my job is to build a Community with yoga as the center piece, the glue that holds people in need of a healthy energy exchange together.

And that, I can do.