Self-Compassion, Finances & Sustainable Teaching
Can money and self-compassion sit in the same sentence?
For me it's a big, fat YES.
As we approach September with its 'new school year' vibes, many of us might be considering how much we charge for our services.
Do we put up our prices?
How will people respond?
Will we lose students?
Will people perceive us as greedy?
In most businesses there isn't such a taboo around talking about money and sustainability, it is a given that to run a business, it needs to be sustainable.
But somehow in the yoga world it can feel controversial.
I have sat in teachers' meetings and seen social media threads where the following has been stated "it's unyogic to talk about money", "if you manifest the universe will provide", "self-compassion and money shouldn't sit in the same sentence".
In one such meeting I fed back to the studio owner "so can we be clear, what I'm hearing from you is that the only way to make a yoga studio sustainable is to pay teachers a rate that is unsustainable to live on."
Time and time again my heart feels warmed by the benefits students gain from our teaching - e.g. people reporting feeling lighter, brighter, more connected to themselves, more at ease after a difficult day, better able to self-regulate in everyday life.
This is wonderful, but it is not too much to ask that teachers can thrive rather than merely survive (burnout is common) while sharing these life-changing practices.
As teachers we need to value our worth. We pay professional rates for our training. It is only fair that we can charge a professional rate for our teaching.
We need to re-frame our hourly rate in its correct context. This is not our rate for an hour of our time. It also includes:
🌟our time in travel, marketing, admin, planning, finances,
🌟business costs of travel, websites, accountants, insurance, membership bodies (and CPD / training to develop as teachers)
🌟missing costs that others take for granted in sick pay, holiday pay, pension contributions, employers pension contributions
The reality is that rates of pay in gyms and studios go nowhere near covering these costs and therefore our true hourly rate is less than minimum wage. It is hard for studios I know, but making classes accessible shouldn't always come at the costs of making teaching unsustainable.
So rather than feeling unyogic or greedy when talking about money can we ask:
🌟Does my fee allow me to be sick?
🌟Does it allow me to take a holiday to rest?
🌟Does it allow for me to look after myself in old age?
This is one of the reasons that both my book and teacher training talk about finances in relation to self-care and self-compassion.
It is not greedy, it about the reality of sustainable teaching.
In addition to supporting our students, we need to ensure we are also sustaining ourselves.
Sustainability & Self Care for Yoga Teachers
For more information on Sustainability & Self-Care for Yoga Teachers courses with myself and Yoga with Norman click the link below.