Yoga Teacher Salary

Name: Nikki Meyers
Job Title: Yoga Teacher
Where: Indianapolis, IN
Years of Experience: 10+ years
Yoga Teacher Salary: 30K to 35K
Employer: Self

Yoga Teacher Job Description:

I teach yoga classes to groups and individuals. A lot of times people come in disconnected from their physical body, disconnected from their emotions. And then after an hour and fifteen minutes, or an hour and a half, something seems to happen and a transformation occurs. They walk out completely differently than the way they walked in; they are connected. I am offering people a set of tools to bring them into that state of connection.

How did you get into this yoga stuff?

I was first introduced to yoga in the early 70’s and had a sincere interest, but I was pretty young and kinda let it fade in and out. But then I got interested in yoga again in the early 90’s when I developed a problem with my sciatic nerve. I went to a physician who said, “I’ll give you muscle relaxants, but that’s a temporary solution for the acute pain. If I were you, I would find a good yoga teacher and a class because that’s what is going to help you the most.” I did and it rekindled all that stuff I felt in the 70’s.

Why did you choose to be a yoga teacher?

The yoga teacher that I was working with at the time was also doing some work in the Boston public schools. Then she decided to go to India to be with her yoga teacher. She taught me the teacher training steps to become a yoga instructor, then asked me to substitute teach her class in the schools and that was my first experience teaching yoga. It wasn’t a high pay rate, but I really fell in love with being a yoga teacher and with what I saw happening with the kids in my class.

What do you love being a yoga teacher?

I love seeing transformation happen in every yoga class. I love the relationships that I make and I really want to develop a heart-to-heart relationship with every single student.  “Yoga,” the word itself, means, in a bigger sense, a relationship with other people, ourselves, our environment and with the “divine,” whatever it is that we call that. My prayer is that a sense of deep connection comes through in every relationship in my life.

Does yoga really work?

My mom is 94 today, but when mom was 92, she had to have a colonoscopy. I was with her in the hospital; they had heart rate monitors hooked up to her. You could see her angst, it was registering on the monitors. While mom was sitting on the hospital bed sheet, preparing for the procedure, we began singing hymns and chanting. 

My mom could literally see her angst leaving as we were breathing, chanting and praying together in her hospital room. The heart rate monitor changed, the evidence was right there.

What is your yoga teacher salary or pay rate?

My pay rate per walk-in student is $15 dollars. For a private class, my fee is between $45 and $60 dollars. If a special therapeutic style is involved, then my  pay rate tends to go more towards the $60 dollar range. A Yoga teacher salary can vary depending whether or not you have a yoga instructors course certification, you know, a certification teaching yoga.

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