Do you think the high cost of becoming a Yoga Teacher is too far out of reach? Will you have to sacrifice your family’s life savings to become a Yoga instructor? How will you be able to justify the time off from work needed to gain your Yoga certification?

There are cost-effective, and less expensive solutions, to learn to teach Yoga by becoming a certified Yoga instructor, without the cost of an “arm and a leg.”

Recently, I was talking to an intern from an outside Yoga Teacher Training program, which had paid nearly $10,000.00 for on-site training, on an exclusive tropical island. He was upset, since he had borrowed tuition costs from his parents, and possibly sacrificed his job, in order to become a certified Hatha Yoga Teacher.

He visited my web site for a Yoga teacher correspondence course and discovered my course was a fraction of the cost he and his family paid. He asked me how this is possible. I explained that we do not need to feed, house, or supply hundreds of Yoga interns. On top of that, there are no transportation costs to be concerned with, when using a Yoga home study course. The only cost is for materials, tutoring, and Yoga teacher certification.

Further, I explained that to be trained in a face-to-face setting, by a Master Yoga Teacher, is more expensive due to the “hands on” time spent with his teacher. After all, we have an onsite Yoga Teacher program that is more expensive than our correspondence course.

Time spent learning Yoga from a Master Teacher, or a Guru, is a valuable service. Our course is designed for an experienced Yoga practitioner who doesn’t need as much hands on help or who has a local Yoga teacher for guidance.

He continued the conversation to ask me about technical support, and I explained that we handle it by Email, over the phone, and some interns stop by for our Yoga teacher workshops. We have had Yoga teacher trainees visit us from California and Great Britain to attend a workshop. By the sound of his voice, he seemed depressed, and I asked him, “What is wrong?”

He told me that he hadn’t been taught anything about the marketing involved in the Yoga business or about business in general. He felt it would take a long time to pay his parents back and didn’t know if his job would still be available to him when he gets back home.

Then, I explained that we have Yoga marketing and business tools in our standard course and as a separate course for experienced Yoga teachers. I invited him to come to a Yoga marketing workshop when he gets back to the States, and, we both, made a new friend.

We all feel a “calling” to do work that gives us satisfaction. It helps to have a passion about our work and to know that you are helping others along the way. This is one of the many benefits of teaching Yoga, but I advise you to research the cost of Yoga instructor education, and to be careful not to put yourself too far in debt. Otherwise, your passion for Yoga could turn into a financial worry - well into the future. This would make it difficult to teach the benefits of Yoga to your students, while you are stressed out over your bills.

Paul Jerard is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in North Providence, RI. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. He is a master instructor of martial arts, with multiple Black Belts, four martial arts teaching credentials, and was recently inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness to children, adults, and seniors in the greater Providence area. Recently he wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students, who may be considering a new career as a Yoga teacher. http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

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