Transcript - The business of teaching Yoga Nidra

This episode is essentially the epitome of this whole podcast: when we boil it down, it’s teaching what you love and making a fair living from that. I always say that teaching yoga might not, probably won’t, make you a millionaire, but it should pay your rent, it should put food on the table, it should pay all the bills and leave a little left over for a buffer or a rainy day or savings…

Our Yoga Nidra training is £400. Do I believe that you can earn that back teaching Yoga Nidra? Yes. Yes I wholeheartedly do. In fact I believe you can earn multiples of that. Usual disclaimer here around earnings, no promises, you have to do the work etc etc. And whilst we’re talking on this sort of theme - in the interests of full disclosure, I really do only think you should teach Yoga Nidra when you’ve got a decent certificate from a training that explains the power of the practice, how to practice and teach safely, how to be trauma sensitive and so on. So everything that follows assumes you have done, or will do, a decent quality training. But, that aside. This episode breaks down the ways that you can bring Yoga Nidra in to your offerings and your teachings to benefit you and your yogis.

We’ll be looking at different ways to share and charge for Yoga Nidra, how much to charge for Yoga Nidra and some general inspiration too.

If you fancy joining our Yoga Nidra and Yoga Wisdom training, it’s in  at Yoga Hero in Leeds in the UK, it’s £400. And it’s really good! And really relaxing!

Ok here we go!

Ways to share Yoga Nidra

Weekly Yoga Nidra classes

Let’s start with the obvious! And like we’ve said approximately 700 times on this podcast: you should consider taking on any additional weekly classes very very carefully indeed; including factoring in planning time, travel time, admin time and so on.

Adding Yoga Nidra on to your classes

This can be a really really lovely way to share Yoga Nidra - rather than having to set up a whole new offering, you either officially, or unofficially make your classes, e.g. Slow Flow and Nidra or Yin and Nidra. THere’s something really important here, which is if you don’t include nidra in the name and / or description then people won’t be expecting it, and you shouldn’t spring it upon them unannounced, you need everyone’s go ahead before bringing it in to class, so just bear that in mind. However, this approach - adding Nidra in to your existing classes - means people can at least get a taster without investing in something new, and you can share Yoga Nidra without taking the risk of adding another offering to your services.

In terms of pricing this for your yogis, you could pitch it as a ‘free taster’ - this doesn’t really work if they’ve already paid for the class, but if you were to tag an optional 15 minutes on to the end of a class, then that really would be a free taster. This would work great if you have another offering, like a workshop, coming up and you encourage bookings after the class.

Yoga Nidra workshops

Workshops could be exclusively Yoga Nidra, or like the classes, you could add Yoga Nidra on to something else; Yin or Restorative Yoga work really well, or you could do something way more Yang and offer a full service workshop, like Power Flow and Yoga Nidra, or Rocket and Yoga Nidra, ooooh I’d come to that! For workshops like that, you could pair up with another yoga teacher and pool your yogis to give your best chance that the workshop will reach capacity.

If you have a space, or a studio, already, you’ll probably find that Yoga Nidra workshops sell out with little or no work. Quick side note here, if you don’t already have a space - have a listen to this podcast episode 8: Renting a space for yoga to help you find the right space for your needs.

In terms of charging for your workshops, usually yoga teachers have a set price for workshops that’s almost double the price of a class, based on the preparation work, rarity of the offering and whether there’s anything added on, like coffee or cake, or networking and what have you. You could always price an Early Bird ticket that’s a bit less to encourage early sign ups, too.

Courses

Again, a course could be exclusively Yoga Nidra; there’s some real value in getting people to commit to practicing Nidra every Tuesday evening for four weeks, for example. But you could also weave it in to courses that have a wider focus, here’s a couple of quick ideas of how Yoga Nidra could be offered in a course format:

Introduction to Yoga beyond the poses:

Week 1: The eight limbs of yoga

Week 2: What stress is, and how to manage stress with yoga

Week 3: The importance of Meditation

Week 4: Rest and Yoga Nidra

An introduction to activating the Parasympathetic Nervous System

Week 1: An overview of the nervous system, and ways to rest, including an introduction to Yoga Nidra

Week 2: How stress impacts the nervous system, and how to rest

To set your pricing for courses, you can almost price it like each session is a workshop and go from there. Another interesting approach is to have a set price for the course, say £60 for four weeks, but offer a slightly increased per-session price. £60 divided by four is £15 per session, so increasing this a bit - to encourage people to book for the full course - would be say £17.50 or £20 per session.

Retreats

Ooooh I feel relaxed even just thinking about a Yoga Nidra retreat! A retreat is such a wonderful time and place to offer Yoga Nidra. Quick side note here, that’s totally subjective and personal, on the second retreat I ever lead, I had a wonderful experience teaching Yoga Nidra. The retreat was just Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. On the Saturday afternoon, I’d mentioned to everyone that after our tea I’d host an optional Yoga Nidra. I suggested make up off, brush teeth, get in to PJs and bring your duvet and pillow in to the yoga room, so that if you wanted, after Yoga Nidra you could just waddle back to bed and go straight to sleep. One lady had responded to say she wasn’t going to come, she never managed to relax and it wouldn’t work on her and so it was a hard no. And she really struggled with sleep and so wanted to try go to bed early. We chatted and chatted and she ended up saying she’d give it a go. She came to the Nidra, went to bed and slept for 14 hours straight! So while I definitely do not advocate hard-selling Nidra and making promises you can’t keep (which for record - isn’t what I did in that instance!) it is a nice nod to the power of Yoga Nidra!

Anyway. Whether your retreat is a half day or a week, bringing Yoga Nidra in to the retreat can add a very impactful layer or rest and release. And it really doesn’t have to be in the evening, the morning works so great too!

Online

Your classes, workshops and courses could be hosted online. There’s just some interesting thinking to so her, for instances like if someone falls asleep or if your internet drops and you can’t finish the nidra and so on. Just a little bit of food for thought for you there. But if you don’t have a studio or a lovely warm, clean, quiet or quietist space available, offering Yoga Nidra online could be a very sensible option for you.

In the workplace

I think offering Yoga Nidra in the workplace could really solve many of the problems that so, so many people are experiencing these days - the need to go go go faster and faster, do more and achieve more. Having your office in your pocket implies that you should always be online, always be working. I think if workplaces offered Yoga Nidra, it’s not *just* that companies facilitate the actual practice, but they are saying to their employees: rest is important, take time for yourself. I think this really is worth exploring.

In terms of paying back your investment, let’s look at it this way. If your training is £400, and you host a Yoga Nidra workshop that’s £20 per place, you only need 20 people to come, or 10 people to come twice, to break even! Remember that there’s probably travel costs, room rental costs, you might want to invest in some blankets and so on, in fact on our training we evaluate what to invest in, and why, from a data point of view. But there’s just a quick example to show you that investing in yourself like this might not be a huge or as hard a decision as you might think.

Some general inspiration

There’s one thing, and one thing only, that’s useful for gaining inspiration here, and that’s practicing Yoga Nidra. Yoga teacher, there’s just no substitute! You’ll teach with heart, with impact and with authenticity when you’ve established a regular practice that’s benefitting you. Remember it doesn’t need to be hours and hours and hours. It doesn’t need to be every single day. But the consistency will benefit you, and your yogis.

Ok yoga teacher, I hope that’s helped provide some food for thought around the business of teaching Yoga Nidra. What I’ve found with our Yoga Nidra trainees is that training as a Yoga Nidra teacher has really helped to solidify their Yoga Nidra practice, in many cases really helping with sleep and overall wellbeing. Which is so lovely. That’s exactly why I do what I do.

So, if you’re a Yoga Nidra teacher, or you’re planning to be, let your cogs start turning about the ways that you can offer Yoga Nidra and let us know how you get on, I’d love to hear!

and as always, happy teaching.