Getting a Yoga Job Overseas
One question we often get is… can I get a yoga job in overseas resorts when I have finished the yoga teacher training? The answer is.. YES! We have many graduates from our Yoga Teacher Trainings travelling the world and teaching yoga in surf camps, luxury resorts, beautiful holiday locations and even ski resorts and on yachts!
How to Get a Yoga Job Overseas
- Meret’s Yoga Journey
- How Did You Discover Yoga?
- What Lead You To Do a Yoga Teacher Training?
- What Was Your Experience on the Santosha Yoga Teacher Training Course
- How Did You Begin Your Yoga Teaching Career After Study?
- How Did You End Up Teaching Yoga in the Maldives?
- Where Are You Teaching Yoga Now?
- What are the Benefits of Teaching Yoga in Resorts
- What Advice Would You Give to People Wanting to Teach Yoga Overseas
- Any Last Wise Words to Share with our Readers?
- Ready to start your Santosha Journey?
- Yoga Teacher Training FAQS
Photo: @oceanflo.aus
Meret’s Yoga Journey
One such lucky graduate is Santosha’s own wonderful Meret Bates! As well as scoring amazing yoga jobs all over the world after her studies with us, Meret has also joined us as part of the Santosha team and has taught on our yoga teacher trainings in Bali, Byron Bay and Online.
Ready to start your Yoga Journey? Visit our course pages to get started today:
BYRON BAY YOGA TEACHER TRAINING
SRI LANKA YOGA TEACHER TRAINING
She is now a much-loved member of our Santosha yoga teaching team, and we thought we would ask her to share with us how she came to have this amazing career… travelling the world and living the yoga dream 🙂
Take it away Meret…
Photo: SaltyBlueMe
How Did You Discover Yoga?
My love for yoga probably started a long time ago with me loving the feeling of stretching when I was a little girl. As a little kid my favourite party trick was doing the splits. My dad used to jokingly call me the equivalent of rubber band in Swiss-German.
Then when I was a teenager, without any experience in yoga, my friends and I organised a yoga class for our peers in a summer camp with postures we found online by googling “yoga”. It turned out to be a lot of fun.
In my late teens I followed my curiosity for yoga and started taking a few yoga classes at the gym I was going to. Then I left Switzerland and moved to Australia where I joined a studio on the Gold Coast which taught quite traditional yoga for a trial month and I was hooked straight away.
I remember my first class at the Gold Coast Yoga centre when I had my first profound experience during meditation. I felt an incredible sense of calm coming over me and felt like my body started floating and hovering just off my mat. After this it was clear that yoga will be part of my life.
I kept practicing and experimenting with different styles of yoga, different teachers and studios, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Yin and so on. I started attending events and festivals and started practicing by myself at home as well.
Yoga helped me an incredible amount when I was studying at university. The concept of single pointed focus helped me concentrate so deeply I kept surprising myself.
The cultivation of a slow, deep breath helped me find calm when I had to perform in stressful situations such as during presentations, speeches or exams. In my personal life it helped me find a wonderful tribe of likeminded souls. It helped me find my light and allow it to shine brightly.
Yoga was and continues to be an incredible gift in my life literally improving every aspect of life for the better.
What Lead You To Do a Yoga Teacher Training?
For all of those wonderful benefits yoga brought into my life I knew I wanted to be surrounded by it, living it and sharing the gift of yoga with everyone around me.
During my university years studying exercise science I started developing a dream of running yoga and fitness retreats, I dreamt of traveling the world while sharing my passion for yoga.
But I knew it will take some time and experience before I will start pursuing that dream,. Once I graduated I was offered a job by a professor of mine to be her research assistant and I was thrilled to be working at the university alongside powerful women and helping people by researching exercise programs for bone health.
Meanwhile my yoga dream grew stronger and once I saved up enough leave I travelled to Nusa Lembongan to do my Yoga teacher training with Santosha.
Photo: SaltyBlueMe
What Was Your Experience on the Santosha Level 1 Yoga Teacher Training Course?
My Level 1 Yoga Teacher Training was an absolute dream come true. A group of 23 strangers soon became one big family.
It was wonderful to have a group of amazing souls all sharing an interest and passion for yoga, all eager to learn and absorb everything yoga.
I appreciate everything we learned in the course but what I loved the most and what was the most impactful for me was how close I felt to myself. I felt like I could be myself unapologetically and felt so loved for exactly who I am, nothing more, nothing less.
It felt like I found home within myself, the same feeling I get when being with my family or my childhood best friends. A group of us went out surfing every afternoon after class, we were all beginners and had the time of our lives. Cheering each other on, sharing waves, riding into the sunset together, almost like in a fairytale.
I will forever cherish those memories, all that I’ve learned about yoga and about myself and all the lifelong friends I have made including my dear friend Santosha founder Sunny.
Photo: @adaaranselecthudhuranfushi
How Did You Begin Your Yoga Teaching Career After Study?
Upon returning from my Yoga teacher training in Bali I was still working full-time, mostly at the university and also as a cardiac technician at the hospital. I wanted to start getting my foot in the door and practice teaching yoga so I picked up a class teaching at a beachfront yoga studio which was very quiet which was perfect as I probably would have freaked out teaching in front of a big group.
The people who joined the class were mostly just my partner and some very supportive friends. I just taught one class a week for most of that year. Then I met my lovely friend Sarnia who owns Pure Aloha Yoga on the Gold Coast, she asked me to do a SUP YTT and start working for her.
She didn’t have to ask me twice and soon after I started teaching for her on Tallebudgera Creek. We had a blast, doing SUP yoga, surfing together and having a wonderful time. Meanwhile I cut back on my day job and started teaching in a couple other yoga studios just getting more experience, doing more teacher trainings, immersing myself deeper into yoga.
Photo: SaltyBlueMe
How Did You End Up Teaching Yoga in the Maldives?
And suddenly I felt ready to travel with yoga! My partner and I decided to quit our professional jobs and start an adventure of work travel around the world.
We scored a job in a resort in the Maldives; me as a resident yoga teacher, snorkelling & dolphin watching guide, him as surf and Watersports Manager. It was an absolute dream come true for about two months.
But you guessed it, the Covid-19 pandemic hit and we got sent back to Australia. We were at Male airport, sad because our adventure got cut short but grateful for the wonderful experience we had when I suddenly received an unexpected call from Sunny asking me if I would like to work for Santosha.
We had kept in touch over the years, catching up and surfing together every now and then and now she needed help as all travel collapsed and she decided to change her whole in-person Level 1 course to a Certified Online Yoga Teacher Training course.
So upon returning I got to work, filming classes and teaching online for Santosha. It turned out to be a wonderful year for me considering all turbulences, helping so many students navigate this crazy time and brightening their days with yoga and a sense of connection online.
After all the craziness of that first covid year my partner and I returned to the Maldives for two seasons at a different surf resort and had a wonderful time.
Photo: @frischiiis
Where Are You Teaching Yoga Now?
When our contracts in the Maldives came towards an end I decided to finally turn my dream of running yoga retreats into reality and started working on my baby Salty Blue Retreats.
I felt ready to share my love for the beauty of yoga combined with my love for the wonder of travel and the ocean with other people. I’ve since run two retreats in the Maldives which were beyond fun and have my next one coming up in November!
My now husband and I decided to continue adventuring which brought us first to Indonesia, teaching for Santosha Bali Level 1 Yoga Teacher Training as well as traveling around chasing waves and we have now arrived in Fiji.
We are currently teaching yoga and surf guiding for an amazing eco resort here in Fiji. The beach front resort is built in an enchanted rain forest with the yoga studio facing a stunning giant banyan tree. We get served amazing fresh food with a lot of produce from the resorts veggie garden. There’s chickens, cats and dogs roaming around the grounds.
I teach 1-2 yoga classes a day in exchange for food, accommodation and getting to surf amazing waves almost every day. We are meeting so many lovely people from all over the world, sharing Asanas, waves and creating tropical memories.
Photo: @rhysbatesphotography
What are the Benefits of Teaching Yoga in Resorts?
It’s an amazing way to experience a new place. You get to do all the excursions and explore the area on a deeper level than if you just go there for a holiday. Staying in the same place for a while you get to know the locals working there and experience the place from their point of view. They are all too happy to show you around and share their culture with you.
It’s such a rewarding job, you get bring sunshine into people’s life, I especially love it when guests try yoga for the first time and end up joining every day of their holiday and want to continue when they go back home. And it’s amazing especially for all the surfers joining the classes as I know it will improve their surfing and support staying healthy and mobile in body and mind throughout their surfing life and beyond.
The people you meet and the friends you make is the best part about work travel. We now have met so many people from around the globe who have invited us to visit them so it feels like wherever we’ll travel to we’ll have someone to show us around.
Photo: SaltyBlueMe
What Advice Would You Give to People Wanting to Teach Yoga Overseas?
If you’re thinking you would like to travel and work in a different place and you have the freedom to go, just do it.
These experiences are priceless and you will remember them for the rest of your life. When I first moved away from home I went with the mentality that I will just give it a shot and see how it goes. Home will always be there and I can return whenever I want.
You can find jobs on yogatrade.com or different Facebook pages, if you look around you will find opportunities. We find our jobs by just blindly applying to places we would like to work at and presenting to them what we can offer and just see what they come back with.
There is literally nothing to lose, the worst that can happen is they say no or they don’t reply which you shouldn’t take to heart, that usually just means they don’t need anyone for these positions at the moment. Just keep looking.
The resorts usually work out the visas and work permits for you. Some will offer an exchange for food and accommodation and others will offer you a salary which means you can even end up saving a considerable amount if you don’t have many expenses after food and accommodation covered.
Photo: SaltyBlueMe
Any Last Wise Words to Share with our Readers? 🙂
Every time I finish a yoga class I invite my students to close their eyes and finish their practice with a sense of gratitude. I invite them to think of something they are grateful for in that moment.
As I give them time to reflect I often think of how grateful I am for what yoga continues to bless my life with. So many wonderful friendships of mine have originated through yoga.
It helps me find peace and calm. It helps me find joy, amazement and a sense of curiosity in simple moments. It keeps my body feeling healthy and mobile. It helps me breathe deeply, charging myself up with fresh energy and exhaling anything that no longer serves me. It helps me to reflect before I act or speak. It has allowed me to travel the world. It helps me shine my light. It helps me bring sunshine into my students days.
Thank you yoga for enriching my life.
From Santosha, and all the Santosha students who you have enriched with your grace, wisdom and beautiful heart-felt teaching THANK YOU Meret! We are so grateful to have you as part of the Santosha family; from passionate student to accomplished and much-loved teacher!!!!!
Ready to start your Santosha Journey?
If like Meret your dream is to teach yoga all over the world – or just even to deepen your own yoga practice and have an amazing yoga adventure – we would love to have you join us on our world renowned 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training program! Take that first step into an exciting new life… today!!
Ready to start? Visit our course pages to get started today:
BYRON BAY YOGA TEACHER TRAINING
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Bali, Byron Bay, Sri Lanka and Online 200-Hour Yoga Courses
How proficient do I need to be at yoga to join the Santosha Yoga Teacher Trainings?
During the Level 1 RYT-200 program you will practice yoga (yoga asanas) every morning. We recommend that students have some form of asana practice and are comfortable practicing daily. An advanced practitioner is not necessarily one who can move deeply into advanced yoga poses; it is someone who comes to the yoga mat with a level of maturity, a willingness to learn, and an appreciation of the limits of their own body.
This course is not only meant for aspiring yoga instructors. It’s also for people who want to take their practice to a deeper level and share an incredible experience with like-minded souls.
Will I be accepted into the Santosha Yoga Teacher Training?
Yes, we believe that all people are deserving of changing their lives! Subsequently, the only prerequisite is a sincere desire in your heart to transform and grow. If you are ready to dedicate yourself with an open heart and mind to study and practice during your time with us, we would love to have you join us – in Bali, Byron Bay, Sri Lanka or Online.
I don’t want to be a yoga teacher – is this course for me?
Yes, absolutely! We love having passionate yogis join us; even if teaching is not your goal this is still a very special experience to go deeper into the magic that is yoga! Santosha courses are much more than just teacher trainings; they are a chance to personally transform and grow. Even if yoga teaching is not your goal, this course will help you deepen your yoga practice, share a unique transformational experience, and be supported by open-hearted mentors and friends. If you want to transform your mind, body, and life then this course is for you!
I do want to be a yoga teacher – is this course for me?
Yes, if you want to teach yoga this is the Yoga Teacher Training course for you! Our Santosha Bali, Byron Bay, Sri Lanka and Online Level 1 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training program is a Yoga Alliance / Yoga Alliance International accredited RYT-200 training – meaning you will learn the skills and teaching experience to gain your certification and register as a RYT-200 Yoga Instructor immediately upon graduation from your Bali, Byron Bay, Sri Lanka or Online studies – qualifying you to teach in gyms and studios around the world.
When will I be ready to teach yoga after theYoga Teacher Training Course?
You will be ready to teach straight away once you graduate, having gained the in depth understanding, skills, teaching experience, and confidence to sequence and lead yoga classes with ease! Many of our graduates are teaching yoga online and in person all around the world.
Can I join the Yoga Teacher Training even if I have injuries or am not that flexible?
At Santosha, we believe that yoga is for everybody and all bodies; and therefore we teach safe and sustainable practices for all yogis. You don’t need a perfect, injury-free body to be a teacher, or to join our course. Instructors who have had injuries themselves are often better at being aware of students’ limitations with flexibility or mobility and keeping them safe.
Can I join the Yoga Teacher Training course even if I feel nervous about teaching yoga?
Yes, of course! It’s normal to feel hesitant about starting something new. Many of our students come into the feeling fear of teaching, public speaking, or doing something new. We take care to create a supportive and accepting space like no other you have experienced. As a trainee teacher, we’ll work with you where you’re at to help you build the confidence and skills you’ll need to share what you have learned (if that’s your goal).
I am older and cannot do all the postures. Can I still join you?
At Santosha, we believe that yoga is for everybody and all bodies – and that your practice should meet you where you are at. It’s no problem if you cannot access certain poses. There is no age barrier to accessing the incredible benefits of yoga practices and sharing them with others through yoga teaching! We are getting an increasing number of students joining us in their 50s, 60s, and beyond on the YTT and stepping up to teach yoga – and we hope to see more!
I feel a bit nervous! Should I Still Do the Yoga Teacher Training?
Yes! This probably means you are ready to step into something new but you just need that extra encouragement to make the next brave step. We are here to offer this to you! You are welcome to email or WhatsApp us and let us know about anything standing in the way of following your dreams, and we can happily provide extra support – both before and during your time with us on the YTT – in a way that best suits YOUR individual nature and strengths.
Ready to start? Visit our course pages to get started today:
BYRON BAY YOGA TEACHER TRAINING
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