9 SET 2024 · Episode 98: Where is the money going? - taking back (financial) power to yoga teachers-fighting the system! With Clare Nicholls, Hrdayam Bern
“My livelihood is completely depended upon my capacity to share authentically and to share with this deep love and compassion. If i don't do my job, i don't get paid. “ Clare
This epsiode is a very important one and so close to the heart for me. Clare is my biggest inspiration on so many levels, specifically in fighting the capatalist system within the yoga industry. Last week i started my own classes, completely run on my own, renting a space, doing my thing. In this episode Clare explains why it's so important to do just that, she shares her journey with running her own space in Bern and her passion and love for this thing called YOGA.
"I wasn’t just going to open another yoga studio in Bern, one because there are so many, two, because I have very strong feelings about capitalism and commercialising yoga. So I wanted to create another system, where I just rent a space and sublet that space to other teachers. Moving away from a commercial model can only be good. Collectives are so much more useful than studios. When places become too big, they become unsustainable. My dream is to have something that lasts."
We also speak about:
- The battle with the current climate….. 3 words bios on an apps, picking and choosing teachers, classes etc. And then there’s us, senior teachers, with a few decades of experience, how do we stand stand out?
- Yoga is not something that works well in a space that has a commercial interest. There’s a different kind of energy exchange with these two models of payment, when a teacher gets paid by the studio, doen’t even know the student names, just rocks up an teaches or when the teacher gets paid directly by the student, builds a relationship with them, that’s a fully different experience.
- WHAT IS YOGA? Asana is NOT yoga.
- ...... and so much more!
SHOWNOTES:
https://hrdayam.ch/
INSTA: @hrdayambern
HRDAYAM: means heart or heart space.
GURU DAKSHINA: The Guru Dakshina is a very ancient concept belonging to the Indian origin. It is unique because no other country has this tradition. It is the tradition to repay one’s ‘guru’ or the ‘teacher’ after the whole process of education is complete. This is done out of respect and acknowledgment by the student towards the teacher or the guru.