While it may seem like the scene is saturated with yoga teachers and classes, there are still far more people not practicing yoga than those who are—even in your local market.
If you’re used to attending a studio and are teaching in one—or hope to—it’s tempting to focus only on bringing students to yoga. But there’s a rich opportunity in bringing yoga to the students, wherever they are! This is how we get more people doing yoga, benefiting from doing yoga, and using the strength, flexibility, and presence they learn doing yoga to help others.
While this is clearly great for the students, it’s also great for your career. As happens at the entry level of many professions, in yoga teaching, you may hit a catch-22: you need experience to teach, but you need to get in to gain experience.
While you may have your heart set on a studio position, sometimes gaining experience elsewhere is the real ticket in. Look at the wide range of places where you could be helping students: in gyms, at community centers, in nursing homes. Teaching wherever you can will refine your teaching skills, serve your students, and gain you some experience for when you do want to work at a studio. You may even find these gigs pay better and reward your soul more!
Think beyond the studio and you’ll be doing the world a service.
The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook is full of advice like this, with action steps to follow to create a career helping others. You can buy it wherever books are sold, or order it from your library. If you’ve read and loved it, I’d appreciate a five-star review on your favorite online bookstore or on Goodreads!
