- Find something you love and do it for a while. Experiment. Do it in different places with different people. Ask experts about it. Challenge it. See if it supports some kind of transformation in you.
- Go deeper and read about this practice you love. Find out about its lineage, it’s characters, it’s applications. Check its ethics.
- Start to learn how to transfer this practice to others through watching teachers. Apprentice, volunteer, take notes when you see other teachers doing a good job. What are they doing that works?
- Do some formal training. Get a qualification in what you are wanting to teach, or if that is out of reach, do training in part of what you want to teach knowing that you can build on that. In this day and age you’ll likely need some credentials under your belt unless you’re really good at building a community based on your personality alone.
- Get a website. Start holding space, even if it’s not teaching. Run a book club or a support group. Facilitate a council circle. Organize a webinar series and invite teachers you respect. Share on social media. Create a newsletter list and start sharing cool stuff, even if it’s not yours (be aware of copyright and appropriate attribution).
- Offer free stuff so that folks can feel what you’re about. Write articles, record audio and video, create handouts.
- Be brave and start teaching what you’re trained to teach. You won’t be great at it to start with, but it’s part of the process. Allow yourself to be a regular human being doing their best with what they love in service of others.
- Ask more experienced teachers if you can co-teach at their program or if they would guest teach at your program. Find a mentor.
- Seek feedback from participants at your program, and from experienced teachers who see your work.
- Start to tweak the program you’re trained to teach in the places that don’t quite resonate, or in the places where you feel you have more to offer (maybe from previous skills and experience you have).
- Start to offer parts of the program you are trained to teach in boutique offerings that focus on a part of the work you are passionate about and have some extra skills in. Offer a “core skills” or a “best of” program.
- Start to offer short programs that use the program you are trained in as the point of departure (e.g. take the body scan from MBSR and expand on it; take the Self-Compassion Break from MSC and expand on it). Make sure to cite your sources and point of departure.
- Learn what your audience likes and wants more of, and expand on that. Repeat programs if your audience can support repeats. It’s likely you’ll need to keep changing your offerings slightly to take care of your loyal supporters. It’s also likely you’ll need to keep teaching the program you’re trained to teach, as the foundation for your business.
- Support your supporters. Support your community. Do that a lot.
- Be brave and start teaching stuff at the edge of your understanding, but firmly in the spotlight of your bliss. Invite your community into experimental work with you. Allow the canvas of your work to grow in sophistication. Allow yourself to think outside the box.
- Make sure you enjoy what you’re doing. Notice the places that are less enjoyable than they used to be. Inquire into whether you need to immerse yourself in that material again to reconnect with its magic, or if it’s time to let it go. Be brave in releasing that which no longer ignites you.
- Support others who want to teach through sharing your wisdom about teaching. Be the mentor. Be generous.
- Lovingkindness for Ourselves (13 minutes) - November 17, 2021
- Lovingkindness for a Loved One (19 minutes) - November 10, 2021
- Soothing Touch and Self-Compassion Break (24 minutes) - November 3, 2021
- Affectionate Breathing (18 minutes) - October 27, 2021
- Arriving Meditation (9 minutes) - October 20, 2021