In order to have a calm & quiet life FIRST YEAR AS A YOGA TEACHER

YOUR FIRST YEAR AS A YOGA TEACHER With 7 years’ Hindsight

MELISSA MAK

“Teaching yoga is different from doing yoga. Being good at doing yoga doesn’t mean that you will be good at teaching it. Be prepared to have things go wrong and to make mistakes. Understand that it is part of the process of learning how to teach. Like yoga, the more you practice teaching, the better you’ll get.” Neil Keleher, yoga teacher for 15 years

FEBRUARY 2013 I graduated from the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Kerala RYT200 in February 2013. We received substantive teaching in anatomy, alignment and philosophy, but nobody taught us how to find work.

These tips are the culmination of my experience and that what I have learned from others along the way.

TIP ONE: TALK Talk to everyone and anyone on your yoga journey. Most new teachers

To help you do the talking while you are sleeping, set up a website! Megan Macgregor of The Core Factory (Sydney, Australia) qualified in 2011 and ran some classes for friends. She soon realised she needed to actively marketing herself to studios. Megan set up a Facebook page and got friends to like her page. She also commented actively on local studios’ Facebook pages. Her online presence allowed studio directors to know her. When Megan visited, she easily landed her first teaching gig. That became other classes from networking with fellow teachers at workshops.

Talk about your karma yoga classes too.

TIP TWO: MOVE AND SEEK YOUR COMMUNITY Elizabeth Gay first completed her training in San Diego, in April. Hoping to gather courage to start teaching, Elizabeth worked at the front desk of a yoga studio An awakening came finally when she realised she wanted to leave San Diego. By December, Elizabeth found herself in Seoul, Korea teaching English and yoga. Her teaching voice and courage blossomed.

“Use your yoga passport to move around!” Elizabeth Gay, Yoga Lizard

TIP THREE: TAKE EVERY OPPORTUNITY. Ashley Lou, owner of Yoga, Inc studio (Singapore), suggested new teachers should take every opportunity given to them. However, it is important to know how much resources you have, when you take the plunge to become a full-time yoga teacher. Her first year considerations include – distance from studio to home; the number of backto-back lessons; waiting time in between lessons; amount of guaranteed classes; and the no-show or one-student-in-class studio policy.

Studios will arrange for mock classes to try out the potential teacher. Trust yourself and ask to be paid for the mock class. Do not be shortchanged because you are new.

Respect the studio’s house-rules. Each studio has its own unique vibe. You have to find a studio whose culture you fit into. A yoga teacher’s job is a job like every other, except you are now contributing to the well-being of your fellow man and woman.

FLASH-FORWARD 2020 It has been seven years since I left Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Kerala. Since then, I did another 200 hours RYT. I am not teaching yoga full time anymore. I teach once a week for my practice.

Before I worked full time as a physical education lecturer, with a yoga teaching side gig of five classes a week. I also ran a yoga retreat business on weekends, where we took groups once a month.

It was tiring physically and it was increasingly hard to scale, as retreat bookings needed to grow bigger. Retreat investments became bigger and riskier. It came to a head when I realised it wasn’t what I wanted. Yoga is more than fitness or money. It was about me, getting closer to my inner form and my relationship to the universe. I took a step away from making it a living, and it eliminated the stress from not knowing if I could pay my bills by just doing yoga teaching, and if I was getting enough classes to make it a living for me.

Today, I am a full-time fitness training lecturer in a local vocational school, and my true yoga journey has begun. I am doing my form of karma, serving the underserved students in my school. I coach students in mental and physical aspects. I have become the lead teacher for Group Fitness and Exercise. Teaching teenagers has its stressors, and my weekly yoga coaching session with adults has helped me remember why I decided to become a yoga teacher in the first place, seven years ago!