In year 2000 I fell head over heels in love with yoga. And finally I had found a love that wouldn't let me down, or so it seemed. At least at first.
Actually I'm still not sure whether it was my body or my yoga that started betraying me, but that's another story, another blog post ...
After spending one month at an ashram tucked away in the Colorado Rockies, a world away from my world, that was falling apart in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I started believing that maybe I could teach yoga. And, although this was still just a tiny seed of a thought, make a living doing it.
I'd known for a long time that I hated selling things, especially if this thing was myself. I was unable to even force a service smile, and I was a waitress.
I've also known forever that I am terrible at appliances and instruction manuals. Whenever I got myself a new gadget, I just wanted to rip it out of its box and start using right away. Too impatient to try to figure out how to work it. And gadgets just seem to be getting more and more complex ...
In recent years it's become clear to me that I want to spend as little time as possible staring into screens and as much time as possible gazing at sunsets, trees, dogs playing, into friends' and lovers' eyes.
And here I am. A full-time yoga teacher/entrepreneur in 2019.
I spend way more time on my computer than I would like to. And most of that time is not spent blogging, something I actually enjoy, instead I do bookkeeping and website maintenance, I research new retreat locations and I make social media posts. To try to attract people to my classes/workshops/retreats. I pay bills and I answer emails. I organise subs for when I travel.
Some of these things I've grown to like. Others I simply feel proud that I've managed to figure out how to do them. Many of the things I have to do, I loathe. I would prefer not to have to be on social media at all, but I am afraid of what it would mean to opt out. I love to teach retreats but filling them is nerve-racking. I have little to no marginals, and paying a deposit on a retreat location is always scary. What if I don't manage to fill it?
I love teaching yoga. Whether it's group classes or one on one. I love figuring out what to teach. I love practicing yoga. I love my colleagues. I love learning about how the body works and how the mind works. I love (creative) writing. I love music. I have a background, and an interest in psychology. I can weave these interests into my 'profession.'
But most of the time being a full-time yoga teacher is spent being an entrepreneur. It's spent in front of the computer. Calculating numbers, paying bills, figuring out how to attract yogis to your offerings. Dealing with computer problems.
It's my feeling that, unfortunately, it's not enough to be good at what you do. I know many amazing yoga teachers who can't make a living teaching, not even close. And then, of course, there are others, who at least in my humble opinion, are impostors, making a killing.