Should I Teach Meditation?

[RossE]

Hey hey.

I'm at a big fork in the road in my life. This is the question that's nagging at me.

I must ultimately decide for myself, but I am looking for some advice from this community, a lot of whom probably meditate  I'm going to give a little of my story first, both with meditation and with my career journey, to give some context.

Around a year ago, during the final year of my bachelors, it dawned on me that my ambition to be an actuary, an ambition I held since I was about 14, was not going to bring me happiness, and that my motivations for doing this were backward. I'd spent two consecutive summers at an insurance company and that also contributed to my decision to abandon it. An actuary is similar to an accountant except they specialise in insurance and pensions - long-term liabilities. It's a highly valued profession in the corporate sphere. It relies hugely on mathematics - calculus, statistics and probability, financial mathematics, and I've been very proficient in mathematics since a young age. My degree was based almost entirely around doing this as a career.

So, I let that ambition die. I have been tutoring maths part-time during my studies for almost 3 years now, and I really enjoy it. So, I continued with my bachelors, and decided to apply to maths teacher training, which would enable me to teach kids aged 12-18 in schools.

I graduated from undergraduate in June this year, and so switched to a different university to begin the teacher training in August this year. During the couple months gap I had, I did Leo's life purpose course and came up with the following LP: transform people's psychological well-being by sparking insight and wisdom. While I felt that I could fit maths teaching into this mould, I knew that I wouldn't be doing it for very long, it wouldn't fulfil my deepest passions, and 3/5/7/10 years down the line I would be some sort of spiritual teacher - be it a therapist that uses meditation, a meditation teacher, a life coach, or similar. I was already thinking about how to incorporate meditation/spiritual teaching into my maths teaching!

Just a few days ago, I quit the teaching course. I was sitting trying to work on the assignment last weekend and nothing was happening - I was going round in circles, I was in an unusually bad mood, I accidentally deleted an entire document I'd written, it felt like completing this assignment was never going to happen! I shut my laptop, sat in my chair and looked out the window. In that moment I realised that I couldn't continue, the past 2 months I'd been lying to myself about my passion for the course. I was never that passionate about it, and it was actually causing me emotional pain because I wasn't fully involved, fully aligned with it. It felt shit scary to admit this, like part of me was dying, like I was falling from a cliff. But it also felt very liberating knowing that I was free to do what I really want to do. On Monday morning I sent the necessary emails to remove myself from the course. That was that.

On reflection, I knew all along that it wasn't right. It was very subtle, but it was there the whole time, sometimes on an unconscious level. I haven't regretted quitting, and I feel more aligned and more authentic, more honest with myself. I still plan to continue maths tutoring part time, for now. I live with my parents so I don't need a "real" job right away, I'll survive!

I have a huge passion for meditation. I've been meditating daily now for almost 15 months, and I plan to do it everyday for the rest of my life. It's possibly the most vital activity in my life besides eating and drinking. I can see that this practice is spreading and its importance in society is possibly higher now than it ever has been. Over the last 3/4 days I've been quite heavily researching how to become a meditation teacher, looking at various courses, how I could deliver it to people, what types of people I could teach, how I could earn a living from it etc. I've already sent a couple of emails to a course leader in England. I have been teaching and guiding my mum in meditation a little bit recently. I feel naturally drawn to it. 

So, you could ask, what's the problem? Why are you even asking for advice? Well, I have some doubts about this career path. I somehow feel that this is what I'll end up doing, my subconscious seems to have decided already, and the circumstances of my life are pushing me in this direction, but on a conscious level there is some uncertainty.

Doubts I have:

• my age: I'm 22. Do I have enough life experience to sufficiently understand the people I'm teaching, the place they're coming from?
• my meditation experience: I have done around 520 hours of meditation practice - a mixture of solo, on retreat, in groups, and experience with about 10 techniques. I have been assured that this is sufficient but it doesn't feel like enough to me.
• subject knowledge: I am aware this is something that could be quite easily remedied by tightening my practice, reading books, going to group meditations, events and watching videos and documentaries, seeking personal teaching.
• business: could I successfully run a meditation business? Would it be taken seriously? 

In general it just feels crazy that I could actually teach meditation for a living, it would completely transform my life! I almost can't take the idea seriously. But on the other hand I am being pulled towards it.

Any advice for my journey would be warmly welcomed  I'm happy to clarify any of the above or any other important information.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2017 by RossE

[SFRL]

Yes go do it.

[RossE]

@SFRL You seem very sure - what lead you to say that?

[HII]

I'll try to quickly provide some arguments against the specific doubts you mentioned, maybe you find them helpful.

1) You're very young, but so what. If you have a skill and you're very good at it, then why not teach other people your methods. If you feel uncomfortable telling some 52 year old dude the subtle secrets of the universe, then don't do it and focus on simply explaining the meditation techniques and general theory about it. For that your age shouldn't matter.

2) If you feel it's not sufficient, then get some more experience. It seems sensible to me anyways that your becoming a meditation teacher would involve some some courses and instructions from other masters and teachers and maybe a handful of different retreats specifically for going a little hardcore before you start passing this on to other people. If you do an intense year or two like this, you'll probably feel more ready.

3) You came up with solutions yourself, so no need to say anything here.

4) I guess that depends on you. You just gotta make this work. I think it should be totally possible. There's this Big Think video with some well-established scientist who talks about the many proven benefits of meditation and how he's very sure that meditation will become a major thing very soon in western societies (he says it'll be as common and obvious as brushing your teeth). People are super crazy about improving their lives and many are very open to try out whatever methods it takes. So the demand is there. Selling the idea that meditation will benefit people greatly shouldn't be too hard. If you're passionate about it and acquire some confidence with it, this should be a huge opportunity to make a career.

[RossE]

@HII Thanks for the advice my friend. I like your style.

I agree with the increasing popularity of meditation. Slowly it is becoming more mainstream, more accessible and less hippy/new age. The more research that shows the profound benefits of meditation, the more its popularity will sky-rocket. And yes, the more studies the are, the less I have to rely on anecdotal evidence to convey the benefits  I could just be entering the field at the right time.

I somehow know that these doubts are very superficial and there is this passion within me to do this, and is willing to go through the emotional labour to do so.

 

 

[SFRL]

20 hours ago, RossE said:

@SFRL You seem very sure - what lead you to say that?

Because right now you are/were on your path to become a Math Teacher, which is like a sure shot into the middle class. But nothing spectacular is going to happen from that. 

When you were going for that high end corporate job, at least there was the prospect of getting very financially successful. Being a Math Teacher that's not going to happen. 

Now if you are going to teach meditation and you end up making 40K a year does it really matter you are not making the 50K a teacher makes? (made up numbers). It's all in the mediocre ballpark. 

But with teaching meditation you free up a lot more opportunities, which also means more financial opportunities. It's not unreasonable to think you end up only making 25K but also that you will make 100K or whatever. 

Another thing is you are 22. If you end up failing or not liking teaching meditation you can always knock out that teaching degree later in your twenties even thirties and still be a Math Teacher or whatever. 

Then at least you tried. 

[RossE]

@SFRL Okay, that makes sense. 

My desire for financial success is fairly non-existent. I could be working in a big company right now earning pretty good money if I wanted to be. It is important to me that I have enough money to be independent and to do the things I enjoy, but having excess wealth doesn't appeal to me. I could get along fine making ~£30k per year (around $50K).

Thanks for your response. I think I'll be pursuing this now.

 

 

[SFRL]

41 minutes ago, RossE said:

@SFRL Okay, that makes sense. 

My desire for financial success is fairly non-existent. I could be working in a big company right now earning pretty good money if I wanted to be. It is important to me that I have enough money to be independent and to do the things I enjoy, but having excess wealth doesn't appeal to me. I could get along fine making ~£30k per year (around $50K).

Thanks for your response. I think I'll be pursuing this now.

 

 

Good luck. I studied to be a teacher myself, and although I learned a lot of useful stuff I am happy I went down another route. 

[Arman]

Nice! It's awesome to find an area of interest/dedication. Good job for exploring this interest. 

On 10/19/2017 at 7:06 PM, RossE said:

my age: I'm 22. Do I have enough life experience to sufficiently understand the people I'm teaching, the place they're coming from?

It's doubtful - but should you be expected to be masterful in something that is relatively new to you? That you have not even started? 

On 10/19/2017 at 7:06 PM, RossE said:

• my meditation experience: I have done around 520 hours of meditation practice - a mixture of solo, on retreat, in groups, and experience with about 10 techniques. I have been assured that this is sufficient but it doesn't feel like enough to me.

Then keep meditating 

On 10/19/2017 at 7:06 PM, RossE said:

• subject knowledge: I am aware this is something that could be quite easily remedied by tightening my practice, reading books, going to group meditations, events and watching videos and documentaries, seeking personal teaching.

You will want a LOT of mentoring and consider taking courses that teach you how to teach. There are tens of thousands of meditation teachers out there and if you wish to make this your life purpose than you want to be on the leading edge of the ability to serve people; to discover a way of offering much more than a youtube video or a few articles would. If you want to be a good teacher it will likely require much more than having meditated for a while and knowing how to do guided meditations. It will require life long dedication, much research and studying, practice, time, energy, love, resources and the ability to become disciplined and productive in your life. Seems like you're already discovering and moving into that understanding so good work. 

 

On 10/19/2017 at 7:06 PM, RossE said:

• business: could I successfully run a meditation business? Would it be taken seriously? 

Do lots and lots of research. And then do more research. Learn sales and marketing. Any skillset can be monetized as a service. Has it not been done before? 

One way would be to work locally coaching people or start a meditation group. Another way would be to generate an audience through free online content, value & personal branding and use direct response marketing to sell a course or service. That's just two ideas of many routes. 

Good luck in your exploration

Edited October 22, 2017 by Arman

[Nahm]

@RossE check out the Buddha boy documentary if you haven’t already. He’s 15. 

[JustinS]

@RossE Yes do it, and give it your all