If you are in anyway in contact with the yoga world you cannot have missed the current whining on about there being too many yoga teachers and the market place being unsustainable. If you wish to hear more on the doom and gloom side just watch "Yoga Inc" (a rather scary documentary about the industry).
But it seems to me that we are missing the point - yoga is not about money. It never can be, which is why it is wonderful that everyone and their dog is now a yoga teacher. A world full of yoga teachers is a world of conscious conscientious people who are actively trying to make the world a better place.
So why is it not possible to celebrate this great shift in human consciousness? Possibly because it is not being done consciously. People are being tricked into wanting teach by slick-looking bendy people with great tans, perfect lives, going on endless holidays, sorry "retreats", swanning around taking yoga selfies on top of world landmarks, making it look generally awesome to be a yoga teacher, as if all of your problems will instantly disappear the second you qualify. (Pot and Kettle, I know!, But sometimes it takes one to know one!)
There seems to be far too many happy go lucky, quick fix training programmes that churn out cookie cutter yoga teachers at a hundred miles an hour without telling them the truth.
What needs to happen here is a rebranding of the Teacher Training as a yoga immersion, you are not going to learn everything you need to know in 200 hours, no matter how quickly you do it, or how beautiful the location. This a lifetimes journey, and it will take time, enjoy it. Slow down, absorb as you learn.
We are in a culture of quick fixes, so if we can see a way out of the daily grind, which looks too good to be true then, why don't we understand, it is likely that it is!
There is not an endless demand for semi-qualified nervous yoga teachers. As well meaning as they may be, people like to feel like you know your stuff. And a months shelf-stacking at Supermarket isn't enough to get you on the Management. It is a lovely "lifestyle business" as they say on Dragons Den, "but i'm sorry I can't invest, i'm out".
And another thing. "That you will more than likely, NEED to have a "day Job" or maybe a partner to support your yoga teaching "habit". There. I said it.
If all potential teachers were told this, then something amazingly could happen. Because people would be choosing to do yoga for love of it, which is really the only way you should teach yoga.
I think that there may even be a touch of the divine consciousness in "YOGA" itself, as more and more people are attached to the thought of doing yoga for a "living", the more it becomes impossible. Meaning you can't make money out it, making YOGA have to be about YOGA! Not money! Clever YOGA!
P.s I am not a broke, or broken frustrated out of work yoga teacher. I have enough, and enjoy what i do, I just think the quick conveyor belt schools and demand for them is getting out of hand.
For more about me check out novamilesko.com