Everything Yoga Need To Know About Leading a Transformative Yoga Retreat
Everything Yoga Need To Know About Leading a Transformative Yoga Retreat
You love teaching yoga, but you’re seeking an experience beyond the usual workshop or event that you’ve had at your studio or in your community. Maybe you like to travel, or you’re looking to finally find a way to get out and see the world. You also enjoy being around people and you have a taste for adventure.
If this sounds like you, then leading a yoga retreat may be in your future! Just as all yoga teachers and yoga studios have different styles, so do yoga retreat leaders. There are lots of ways to lead a retreat, but you are your own unique person with your own unique teaching and leadership style. This is how you’ll eventually attract your participants, but first we need to discuss some important things to know.
There are a series of helpful topics that, as a retreat leader, you may not always discuss with a yoga retreat center or even a travel company that helps you put together a retreat. Leading a transformative and successful retreat requires lots of research and planning. You also want to make sure you and your participants are safe and well-informed.
Table of Contents:
Important Things To Know About Traveling Internationally
Licensing, Certifications, Permits
Safety, Precautions, and Staying Ahead of Injury
Partnering vs Leading Your Retreat Solo
Deciding Your Cost
Can I Lead a Yoga Retreat?
Learn From My Mistakes
1. Important Things To Know About Traveling Internationally
If you are traveling outside of your country, you need to work with your point of contact or the retreat center you’re working with to discuss important things like visa, vaccination, and any entry requirements for the country you’re visiting. You’ll also need to discuss weather, local currency, ethical or cultural sensitivities, and guidelines for being a respectful tourist. When you’re leading a yoga retreat, you’re also responsible for educating yourself and your participants on ways to behave respectfully in a new culture and environment.
It’s important to remember that you’re a guest in someone else’s “home.” You’re there to learn and experience the culture. You need to remind your participants that many of their usual comforts from home may not be available while they’re on an international retreat. This can be frustrating for some people, but it’s your job as a retreat leader to diffuse any interactions that may be disruptive to other participants and to the people in the country you’re visiting.
It may be helpful to create a things to know list for yourself and for your participants.
2. Licensing, Certifications, and Permits
As a yoga teacher, you may already be familiar with things like liability insurance, waivers, and contracts. We go a bit more in-depth with things like that in our Yoga Retreats Training, but for now, make sure that all of your credentials are up to date and. You don’t need a certain certification or license to lead a yoga retreat, but you do need to make sure documents like your passport or driver's license are up to date.
If you’re leading a more local retreat and you’re serving as a guide, check the expiration dates for all of your own licenses. For example, if your retreat involves a hike, you most likely need a guiding license. If your retreat involves a yoga class at a park or on a beach, you may need to obtain a permit to be there and to have people moving through a physical activity,
3. Safety, Precautions, and Staying Ahead of Injury
It all keeps coming back to communication. You need to make sure that you know the terrain of your retreat destination, the climate, and also where all the local pharmacies and doctors are. If you’re leading a retreat with an adventure element to it like mountain biking or surfing, make sure you know how far away help is in case of emergencies.
All of your participants should get travelers insurance if your destination is outside of your own country. In your participant intake form, you should also ask them to include allergies, medical concerns, or anything else that you should know about their health.
4. Partnering vs Leading Your Retreat Solo
You need to ask yourself if you want to lead your retreat alone or if you want to partner with another yoga teacher or professional. If you’re leading your retreat solo, you will make more money from the experience, you’ll have more control over the itinerary, and you won’t have to check in with someone else whenever a decision needs to be made.
If you partner with someone, whether it's another yoga teacher or someone like a climbing or surf instructor, you will be splitting your final payout. However, you’ll also have someone else to facilitate and hold space for the group, you’ll have a bit more alone time for yourself, and you can also take part in someone else's yoga classes or whatever activity your retreat partner provides.
5. Deciding Your Cost
Who are your participants? Where are they from? What are they willing to spend on a yoga retreat? Be mindful that what you choose to include will also inform these questions.
You may choose to stay at a place that’s rated at 5 stars vs 4 stars if you want it to be more affordable for your participants.
It’s important to make sure, at the bare minimum, that your costs are covered for leading the retreat. Things to factor in would be your flight, your accommodation, food, transport to and from your departing airport, and also how much money you would like to make from this. No one likes to talk about money, but in order to help create a sense of fulfillment, be honest about what you need personally to make your retreat happen. We provide a much more in-depth example and worksheet on how to properly figure this out in our Retreats Training.
6. Can I Lead a Yoga Retreat?
If you’re inspired to do something or if you feel a strong call to make something happen, then go for it. If you don’t, you’ll regret it or think about it for the rest of your life. When you’re called to lead a yoga retreat, you also are being called to step into the role of a leader. As yoga teachers, we are all leaders in some way.
Being in the role of a leader means to really think about what it means to be balanced, to be available to others, and to also teach by example. If I’m constantly fighting with my retreat partner, for example, how can I talk about impactful communication to my group?
7. Learn From My Mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes. There are a lot of things that happened (or didn’t happen) that could have been avoided if I’d done my own research or talked to people who had more experience than me. Some tips for you are:
Don’t over-plan. This causes participants to become too attached to the schedule and potentially get upset when things don’t go as planned.
Avoid too much yoga. Your participants may get overwhelmed or too tired if you include too many classes. You also might get too tired to teach a scheduled class and need to skip it, which may cause some people to be upset that something was taken off of their itinerary.
Keep your retreat up on your website while you’re on the actual retreat. People still like to have access to it from their computers, tablets, and phones while they’re with you. Your participants may also be sharing pictures to their social media accounts and keeping your retreat listed will give them something to link to and also help promote you or upcoming retreats.
Provide a basic language guide. It’s so important to make an effort when speaking with locals. Learning a few phrases like “Hello” and “Thank you’ can go a long way in showing respect. No effort is too little.
Assuming you have no access to certain toiletries and personal products. Some products may be harder to find when abroad, so be sure to pack necessities for both you and your participants.
Inform participants about currency and research where and when to change money or pull money from an ATM. Educate yourself on ATM locations and also currency exchange in the country or along your journey.
You can't make everyone happy all the time. On a yoga retreat, people may be out of their comfort zone and a lot of different personalities are together for a long period of time. It’s important to be sympathetic, nurturing, and also in the role of a leader, but it’s also important to remember that making one person happy may make another person upset. Remember why you’re there and what it is that brought all of these people together. Stay connected to that and perhaps hold space for a gratitude-share or a meditation on gratitude.
Remember, it’s a vacation. As leaders, it’s important to step out of the center. You should hand over the more comfortable rooms, the massages, and also switch dinners around if that means creating a better experience for your participants.
Have clear boundaries with friends who come on the retreat. Sometimes friends think you’re on vacation with them and it’s important to give your attention to the whole group and not just to the people you know and are familiar with. Change who you sit next to at every meal.
There are so many moving parts when it comes to leading a retreat and there is so much to learn! We have a yoga retreats training that will guide you through creating your dream retreat.
You’ll learn how to figure out your destination, learn how to piece it together, and also learn what to do and what not to do while on the retreat. We’re so excited to share this with you!
Want to lead your own yoga retreat? Check out our Yoga Retreats Training!
This blog was written for YogaRenew Teacher Training