Invest in Yourself
For the last 7 years I have been teaching in studios, community centers, fitness centers, paying rent for rooms to teach in and finally owning a studio, and through and through, yoga seems to get a rap for being expensive. Yoga, being a spiritual path, has been said to be something that should be free, or incredibly low cost. There are studios and places with classes you can get for free, we offer them quite frequently at our studio as well, every full moon or more to be exact, but what I have noticed over the years is, the people who want to invest in themselves will, and those who pay, come to class. Why… because they are making an investment in themselves.
Teachers spend a lot of time, travel and money to become certified and continue their education as well. Then they spend more money on books, marketing tools, and much of their spare time coming up with new ideas that will help themselves and their students grow. Studios create a beautiful environment that is comfortable and filled with yoga tools, like props, blankets and cushions that are at no small cost, and the cost to open a center or studio in today’s age is high, so that is another reason why yoga prices are what they are. My first teaching experience was in a cold, dirty day care gymnastics room, and my students, ever devoted, still paid to come just for their yoga and to get me to drive 45 mins two times a week!
Overall, yoga should be seen as an investment in your health and wellbeing, the ultimate preventative and healing medicine, besides you are what you eat, yoga helps us with the other aspect, you are what you think. Do you know the cost of 1 top shelf martini these days is the almost the same as most drop-in yoga class fees, that provide you with an hour or more of health? The cost of one month of cable is almost the same as one unlimited month of yoga? Look at the cost of your cell phone bill, I bet it is way more than a 5 or even a 10 class pass to your good health! So put your drink glasses down, put away your I phones and the remote control, and think about what you are really investing in, if you choose yoga, you choose you.
Namaste to all of you who choose you and who choose yoga and other healing paths,
Jennifer Langsdale

My son drinking his Vitamineral green smoothie with his mommy! He is not even 1 years old yet in this picture!