"Balancing energies"

Energie Ausgleich

In Germany the words “Energie Ausgleich” are often used when attending workshops or yoga classes. It means “balancing energies” in English. Basically that you get something that you need (yoga, meditation, massage, sound healing…..) and then you “balance out the energy” you’ve received with money.

I’m a big fan of the bartering system; I need my garden done, but I don’t know which plants to put where or how to do the design. Instead I ask my friend, the gardner, if we can swop with something I can do - yoga, meditation, nadi point or sound healing. That way we both get something we need, but there’s no money involved. What’s not to like?

There’s an understanding between us, we pay in work! Great! No money involved!

But when I was was doing a flyer for a workshop, specifying “Price 60€”, one of my clients - he’s also a yoga teacher - asked why I didn’t write “Energie Ausgleich” as he thought that would give another impression?

My answer was - and will remain - that I don’t want to give another impression!

Let me explain; I’ve been on this path for many years, I have worked as an independant since 2016 and I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved! It has taken a long time for me to find my own worth, to dare to say out loud that the work I do is important and that I’m worth of having a decent salary.

I’ve worked for free, for presents, for tips, for a low hourly pay - I’ve fulfilled my obligations I think! I’ve travelled to be able to do classes. I’ve done classes with only a few people. Even prepared classes where no-one came. On top of that I’ve constantly kept learning new things, deepening my knowledge, achieving more certificates and bettering myself - not because I wanted to make sh*tloads of money, but because I wanted to be better! Do better! Keep moving.

So, no. I don’t write “Energie Ausgleich” because it isn’t! It’s a price. It costs! You pay me! I mean, you don’t expect to pay next weeks groceries with a neck rub or home knitted sweaters, do you?

I know it’s not very yogic to think like this, and I’m very sorry to put this out there! But I think it's really important that we as a group allow ourselves to take a stand on this - and that it begins with us NAMING the worth we bring to the table! To USE the M-word!

I would love nothing more than to have a house available, free access to mats, blocks, belts, certificates and new knowledge. To have a small income every month that would cover my basics so I could share the yoga with love because it’s a way of Life for me, and in a small way, to make the world better!

……. but unfortunately I live in a world where I have to pay rent, insurance, be able to travel to help the clients who can’t come to me, keep my room and the aids I have in my practice fresh - and I WANT to keep on learning to become a better teacher!

“Yes, but I don’t know what I’m getting!” many people say - smiling in a weird manner so I don’t think they really mean it. But just because you can’t measure the benefits in a way you know or feel comfortable with, doesn’t mean it isn’t measurable!

Let me stress this out: until now I’ve put 15.000-20.000€ into certificates and masterclasses - I have had hundreds of clients - yes, some of them weren’t satisfied, off course - I have thousands of classes under my belt….. so it isn’t because you pay for nothing.

You pay for my expertise. You pay for my time. You pay for everything that goes before to have the quality of what you get now!

And no. I don’t make the before mentioned sh*tloads of money! Let’s face, it if I wanted to do that I wouldn’t have become a yoga teacher, now would I!!?

I make less than 17.000€ a year, less than 1500€ a month - enough to pay my rent, insurance, car, every other year a certificate, courses and masterclasses. I want to work less. I want to have time for my own thoughts and practice, my own path. As comparison the lowest salary in Germany is about 2100€.

To be completely honest I think we as yoga teachers tend to make our own life more difficult, because we are not completely clear about the value we actually add to the world.

I do strongly believe that we should dare to know AND NAME our value to the world. And how does that start, you may ask? Well - for me it has a meaning when you are clear about that you are paid in money - not in “balancing energies”. Because what you want to do, to be, to have in this world - you must put it into the world, ergo SAY IT!!