Ethics for Yoga Teachers

Transcript

hello everybody this is kat here from grounded and graceful yoga teacher training and here is a little video about yoga and ethics so rather than it being about the niyamas and yamas which of course it does relate to as well it's more about the ethics of being a yoga teacher so the standards of being a yoga teacher i might have a slightly different take on this to what you've heard before but bear with me till the end and i will try and make my point clear i've thought about all of this quite a lot and i'm excited to share it with you so first of all let's just go through the basics so you're a yoga teacher what standards do you have to adhere to so we can look at some of the the initial ones so one of the initial ones that i can remember learning about on my teacher training was cleanliness which is one of the niamas um so it's a standard that you should in fact always turn up to teach clean i know that seems so basic but it's really important so you would always shower you would have clean clothes no stains on your clothes or anything like that no drop food i know sometimes i've gone to teach yoga and on the way it's been raining and i've got mud on my leggings and i can't really do anything about it but the um the intention was to go with clean leggings um you would brush your teeth you would do your hair um and if you want to you know make sure your face is nice and clean um that would be appropriate too so cleanliness is a standard that you must adhere to and while people might think it's kind of okay just to turn up to yoga and you know groggy clothes and dirty feet and messy hair because you know it's yoga and we're hippies and i'd like to remind everyone that that cleanliness and present good presentation is one of the new yamas and it's not okay to look like a dirty hippie so yes cleanliness what would be another one one of the basics so how you charge people so you would either tell your students in the beginning that the class is free i would recommend giving free classes while you're learning to learning to teach so i know even after i got my teacher training certificate for the first six months after that i gave a hell of a lot of free classes and i'm very pleased that i did that um there's something that happens when it's a free class you kind of feel more comfortable in the beginning i did anyway because you know there's no expectation they were just so grateful so instead immensely grateful to be receiving the class for free that it it allowed me to be the mummy be more comfortable and to really refine my teaching skills so if you're giving a free class you're giving a free class you would tell them and you would therefore not take any money but eventually along the line you are going to charge so what are the ethics well maybe look around and see what the going rate is don't under charge or you will be undermining other teachers and you don't want to do that you shouldn't be stealing um other students by under charging and non-stealing is also one of the yamas so please try and make your rates and kind of you know the going rate and you know if it's slightly under or slightly above that would be fine but you don't want to be doing to either of the extremes you would set your rate they would know your rate before they arrive and if you have rules so if you give monthly passes monthly cards make sure that they clearly know how long this pass is valid for and don't be afraid so there will be students who try to get you to extend the pass or book a class and cancel it last minute and all these things are obviously stealing from you from your livelihood which is not going to prove very beneficial to anybody so please be completely comfortable with stating your terms and conditions and sticking by them of course if you feel like one of the situations for example someone couldn't come to use the final class the class on the class card because their mother died or you know their child was terribly sick and they had to go to the hospital and you believe them then yeah you can extend it but you have to i definitely was the kind of person who was just like oh don't worry about it don't worry about it and you know some people would using would be using one month class pass for maybe six months and obviously that meant i wasn't getting paid for five months of those six months which it's not very good for your dignity and it's important that you remain dignified and in protecting your earning capacity is one way of doing that in a very kind compassionate way but being very firm and fair and honest so don't be afraid to set your prices according to the going market rate here thereabouts and to yeah to let people know the terms and conditions and to stick to them as best you can um other things so um we talked about cleanliness we've talked about prices advertising you can ethically advertise um and by that way i would mean it's just an honest representation of your business and what you are offering um yeah i i do try to use my photos only and so it's giving an honest reputation honest representation of what i'm offering i did once however pay a professional marketing and manager to do some of my instagram for me and she was using images from freeimages.com and pinterest and when she was using images from those platforms she was always crediting them um so if you do take imagery from other places credit the place you're taking it from and make sure you are always representing your business honestly so you know maybe say this picture is not me um thanks to pinterest for this beautiful picture and so honest representation of your offering when people ask you about your experience it's your duty as a yoga teacher to be honest don't lie don't try and play yourself up and equally don't play yourself down and just be honest don't worry if you don't have so much experience and you don't think it sounds too great well if it doesn't sound too great to them they can choose someone else and it will sound perfectly good enough for other people who are right for you so just always being honest now we get to the point that i've had a little think about that might be a little bit [Music] not what's always written in the textbook so should i be friends with my yoga students well being one of the gang if you like i used to think it was totally important to be one of the gang to build a community and i still think it's very important to build a community very very very important because we all need community um but being one of the gang is different if you're going to be the teacher of this great weighty science and philosophy then you should probably be using your time more beneficially than doing gang things so what i mean by that is i've a classic example when i'm teaching on a retreat lots of people go out to the nightclubs and i don't go some people think that's bad because i'm not going out with them but i'm gonna go to bed early and i'm gonna wake up and without a hangover um of course i have definitely gone out on odd occasions for closing ceremonies etc but as a rule i don't want to be um you know doing the gang things or if they all go out for a day maybe i can stay at home and study and replenish myself so can you be friends with your students yes you totally can but remember a teacher has to um take a different role than being you know the most popular person in the gang you're probably gonna have to lay down some rules people might not think you're the nicest person when you're laying down rules you're gonna have to lead people don't always like leaders people can get jealous or resentful you're gonna have to deal with that if you're gonna be a full fully blown professional serious teacher i'm gonna recommend you to choose your inner circle really wisely of course when you're just starting out doesn't matter too much but i'm giving you advice for the long run so in conclusion yes definitely build meaningful relationships build communities love people care for people but don't try to be the most populous one in the game okay leave that to the gang and you do your job um and stay on track with your job of course when there's a big event coming up and you show your face and have fun with them then of course but in general you've got a job to do and you need to pick your inner circle very wisely and you need to trust them can i have relationships with my yoga students well in this day and age it's more it's likely that you might meet a future partner in yoga um you know lots of people are doing yoga but do you really want to turn your class or your offering into a pickup joint no i don't think it should be if you know you start to like someone in the class maybe become aware of that and take action to remove yourself from that class so if you're the teacher and you start liking a student maybe ask them to find another teacher or if you're a student you're like the teacher maybe find another teacher and then when you've kind of removed yourself from the professional setting maybe then you could explore a more intimate relationship don't think that you're you can't have an intimate relationship with someone you meet in the yoga circle because that would be um unrealistic you know you might meet the look of your life in your local yoga studio yes that's true but that shouldn't be your intention as a teacher i'm sure it won't be moving on from that is the hands-on assists you're going to make sure if you ever touch someone you never ever ever touch them in an intimate sensual way you are touching them in a way that is black and white helping them guiding them should you wear sexy clothes to yoga i don't think you should i can probably count on both hands the times that i've worn you know a little crop top to class um i might do it if i'm teaching a class about the second chakra which is about sensuality because i think it fits with the theme of the class in fact i did that on the teacher training but no i'm not going to walk around in a skimpy little crop top um all day i don't think it's necessary for the teacher to be doing that and i think that you should make sure that you're dressed elegantly some people might say but it's my self-expression of myself well express yourself in an elegant professional way um is my recommendation if your top's falling down and showing bits of your body um or you're bending over and your leggings are see-through then you're not going to be taken very seriously um so you know just be aware of those things um you are going to be the teacher the teacher needs to be clean well presented elegant you need to choose your inner circle very wisely trust the people that you're choosing to be in your inner circle if you do start to like someone or someone starts like you in the yoga circle take action so that can be done with integrity and don't wear clothes that show too much of your body or your underwear um anything else don't swear in your class never swear in your class even if it's funny don't talk about sex in your class even if it's funny um yeah i mean there's so many things i could go into but you've got to remember that people are coming to your class for so many different reasons and there's so many ways to trigger people some people are coming with a perfectly clean slate happy healthy positive yay happy happy happy some people are coming from past experiences of being abused or having a hard time so just make sure that you empty yourself of all your stuff before you go into the class so you can imagine this glass it's got my water in empty your water out your glass out of you and be an empty container to hold the class not with any of your stuff but let the space be for them so you're showing up as a professional teacher who can hold space with integrity and seriousness and compassion um [Music] yeah so what i'd like to ask the teacher trainers to do after this chat um is to write maybe a little journal extract or an essay about what this has brought up for you so how are you gonna show up as a professional what are you gonna wear to your class what are you going to do to prepare for your class before you enter it you're going to have 10 coffees some be buzzing i can be or you're going to try and you know take a few deep breaths and show up as a calm empty container um are you going to overcharge people or undercharge people are you going to let people take advantage of your prices or are you going to be um showing up with dignity and staying true to your terms and conditions are you going to be hanging out and going out with all the students all the time or you're going to save that for just maybe special occasions and the other time you'll be doing what a good teacher does which is being a student um yeah are you going to be filling your head with less than positive spiritual things like you know gossiping bitching porn horror movies are you gonna try and keep what's going into you pure and light you have chosen this path to teach yoga and you need to realize that you are holding every student's heart in your hand i'll repeat that you are holding every student's heart in your hand what are you gonna do with that heart are you gonna give it all your rubbish are you gonna let it sit in the light of your heart so are you going to get past all your stuff and find your light so you can let their heart touch your heart and together you can create something beautiful write me something i don't know don't mind what it is an essay a journal you can write me a letter you could write me a poem a song the title of the homework is called holding a heart in your hands how are you gonna hold their hearts in your hands be happy be well be yourself be love namaste