Namaste friends,

I recently received a private message from a woman who was beginning to experience burn-out with her clients and felt as though some clients were sucking her energy. I decided to write about this topic in our newsletter this week as she had some fantastic questions about clients and your business.

In Shiva Rea’s teacher training she speaks about there being and exchange of energy between the teacher and the student. Sometimes you may feel this and other times you may feel students or your private clients draining you completely. Depending on how many classes or privates you are teaching, it could be misinterpreted as you feeling burn-out as a result of not taking care of yourself.

I experienced this myself when I first moved to Florida. I was teaching so much that I left my own health and well being out of the occasion. I ended up getting sick frequently and was constantly feeling run down. Due to the way I was feeling it forced me to look at my schedule and make some changes. If you are not taking good care of yourself; eating well, getting enough sleep, making sure you have one or two days off a week and doing your own practice, you may not give back very much positive energy yourself.

One of the most important things I believe is to be a great teacher and have more to share with your students, you need to cultivate a self practice.

I was on the phone the other night with one of Shiva Rea's assistants and she was asking how my practice was going while being pregnant. I told her some days my practice is coming home after a long day of clients and lying on the couch doing deep breathing and relaxation techniques. Obviously my practice has changed a lot and part of my practice has been completely honoring my body and my baby and taking good care of myself. She then inquired how many clients I saw a week before my pregnancy.

When I told her she was amazed and said “That’s a lot”. “How did you manage to practice?” My response was sometimes I made sure I had a break in the afternoon or when my day finished I headed straight to my yoga room and sometimes practiced until 9:30 at night.

We then spoke about the challenges of becoming a new mom and when you are no longer single. It will be a whole new juggling game of time management and fitting in my yoga time.

The better you take care of yourself, the more you have to give to your clients. Everyone has good days and bad ones or challenges they may be going through. Sometimes if you are working with a client who tends to take more energy from you, see if you can do a meditation before you see them and make a point of not overextending all of your energy.

When do you weed out clients who don’t seem that serious:

I feel that who ever calls me and becomes one of my clients, I am meant to help. Not everyone is going to love yoga as much as I do or will want to be as eager as I may want them to be about doing more sessions or even starting their own practice. I try my best to accept clients where they are at. I have some very dedicated and serious clients who love yoga and put a lot of effort into our sessions. Then I have others who I may only see once a week and they are don’t love yoga but they feel their bodies need it and they are benefitting from it.

How Far will you drive to see a private client:

I think this depends on you and your time and what your schedule is. When I first started growing my private business, I was more flexible and would drive a little out of my way. Know I have changed that. I only go to people who live in Boca Raton. Usually I don’t drive more than 20 minutes to see a client.

I realize if you live in N.Y. or L.A. this could be different. If I do decide to drive farther, then I charge for my driving time. At times if the client is comfortable then I will have them come to my house, to eliminate me having to go to them.

Are you asking you clients for referrals?

What better way is there to get more business other that asking your clients  to refer their friends. Be bold and take a chance. I have gained great long-term clients by just asking for my clients to recommend me one of their friends. It is a easy way to get more business.

Aspire to be greater in everything you do…..may abundance shower down upon you!

“The changes that are alive in us, the love that is reshaping our hearts and restructuring our individual possibilities, are the blueprint of tremendous change for everyone.

Every feather on the bird’s wing carries the beautiful bird a little bit closer to home. Every moment of love each one of us feels brings us all a little bit closer to the moment of our ultimate reunion”.

Can We Do Some Naked Yoga?

Harlan, I'm shocked. This is a yoga newsletter. How can you write about Naked Yoga?

Folks, I couldn't make this up.  Check out what Pegasus, one of our forum members recently encountered.

Maybe you can make some suggestions to help.

Please go to our forum and read her post. Here's the link.

And while you're there, lots of great new posts on our forum.

What Would You Do?

What Are You Doing To Improve Yourself & Your Business?

If you have the time in your schedule, are looking to escape on a fabulous, relaxing yoga retreat and learn Restoraflow techniques to add to your teaching repertoire. I would love to have you join my in Costa Rica this May from the 2 -9.  It will be the second retreat I am hosting in Costa Rica but this year I choose a different location.

This is a magical place, one where you will enjoy the nature of Costa Rica, ride the ocean waves, lie in a hammock watching the monkeys in the trees and practice 4 hours of yoga and Restoraflow  every day.

I hope to have you join me on this 7 day re-energizing retreat.

Here's where you go to find out more about the retreat: Restoraflow 2009 or you can click the Products link at the top of this page.  I'm even offering a payment plan so you can pay it out.

Stay connected to your inner beauty.

Om Shanti,

Sara