Read Ingrid’s article in Yoga Magazine’s March 2022 issue on Yoga for The Joy of Missing out, including a yin sequence for you to practice!
Yoga Magazine: Yoga for JOMO
Tag: yoga doctor
Yoga Teachers: Here’s Exactly What You Should Charge For Classes
There’s no magic formula, but these tips and strategies will help you identify a price that you are comfortable charging.
Determining how much to charge for your classes and workshops is one of the first challenges every professional yoga teacher faces. As teachers, it is often hard to assign a monetary value to our teaching when yoga is closely coupled to our passion for a practice that has given us so much. It can be a delicate balance between sharing what you love while also being equitably compensated for your time and energy. After all, teaching yoga is an energy exchange, and energy flows best when there is balance. While there is no perfect formula to calculate your rate, here are some tips and strategies to help you identify a price that you are comfortable charging.
See also: 5 Reasons Why Even the Best Teachers Need Liability Insurance
1. Begin with your values
Start out by asking yourself some basic, yet important, questions; reflecting on your answers can be a great starting point.
- What is your main motivation for teaching yoga? Is it simply to enjoy and share the practice with others, or is it also a means to support yourself and your family?
- What are your expenses and will they be covered by the prices you set? It may not make sense to pay more for childcare or transportation than you earn for teaching a private session. So be sure to consider these costs when calculating your prices. Other expenses you may want to consider include taxes, managing your website, accounting and more. Don’t forget to include travel time as part of your pricing calculation!
- Do you want to work for someone else or for yourself? While there is much more freedom to set your own price levels when you work for yourself, it is important to determine if it is worth the time and cost of marketing, accounting, and more. On the other hand, working for someone else often involves accepting the compensation set by the employer, with very little negotiation room.
8 Ways to Build Your Client Base as a Teacher
You just finished your YTT. Here’s how to stand out from the crowd to build—and keep—a strong student following.
Building a solid client base is one of the prime goals for any yoga teacher. With good reason: There’s nothing more demoralizing than showing up week after week prepared to teach, only to look out into an empty class! But how do you build up a loyal student community that truly represents your vibe? While there is no easy answer or template, this expert advice will help you on the road to success.
Read the full article on Yoga Journal!
Dr. Yang on Get Healthy 360 Podcast
Listen to Dr. Yang’s interview with Dr. Kris Ferguson on her transition from economist, lawyer, yoga therapist and physician. Learn about all things yoga, life transitions, and finding your calling in life. https://gethealthy360.com/yoga-motivation-and-finding-your-calling-in-life-ingrid-yang-md-jd/
Read Dr. Yang’s article in Yoga Therapy Today on yoga therapy for those recovering from COVID-19
This article was originally published in Yoga Therapy Today Winter Edition 2021 in January of 2021. https://www.iayt.org/general/custom.asp?page=YTTCurrentIssue
Everything you need to know about the COVID-19 Vaccine
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the COVID-19 vaccine recently. “Should I get it if I’m pregnant?” “What if I have an allergy to bee stings?” “What if I’ve already been infected with COVID-19?” “What side effects have you had?” And the most common one: “If you get the vaccine and have immunity from the disease, can you still transmit it?” (Hint: most likely not).
So here is your best resource for your answers (click here for full article from NEJM)
In short:
Should I get it if I’m pregnant? So far, there have been no reports of the vaccine injuring fetuses, however, thus far there have been no large studies on this. On a personal level, I have had friends get the vaccine who are pregnant, and have since had their babies and all is well.
What if I have an allergy to bee stings? Thus far, there does not appear to be anaphylaxis responses to the vaccine for people that have anaphylactic responses to bee stings. The best way to gauge your allergic response is if you have had allergies to vaccines in the past.
What if I have already been infected with COVID-19? Those who have active infection to COVID-19 should wait to get their vaccine (because it will be less effective). But if you have had the infection in the past, it is still recommended that you get the vaccine.
What side effects did you have? I had a sore arm for just done day with each shot (I’ve gotten the first and second dose of the Pfizer vaccine), and a mild headache after the second shot, which resolved after a day.
Can you still transmit the disease if you have been fully vaccinated? Probably not (after you have gained the full immunity, i.e. at least 1 week after your 2nd dose). For one, the virus is very unstable outside of the body. Prevention of disease also equates to prevention of infection. However, as this is still being studied, it is still recommended that you take all precautions as you did before such as hand washing, social distancing, and mask-wearing.
Remember, the vaccine is not just 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, but close to 100% effective in prevent serious, life-threatening illness with COVID-19! This downgrades it to less deadly than influenza, and saves so many lives!
Click on this link to read more from the infectious disease expert, Dr Paul Sax in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The opinions expressed on this page and by the owner of this website are published for educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as a diagnosis, treatment or as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis and treatment.
Happy Women Physicians day
Today, a dear friend reminded me that today is National Women Physician’s Day. I am honored to celebrate this day as both a member and admirer of physicians. By 2050, women will consist of more than 50% of the physician workforce… while still being mothers, sisters, daughters, caregivers, side-gigers, philanthropists, volunteers, activists, friends, badass multi-taskers, and so much more. This profession is not just a job, it is a calling. In my late 20s, I changed the direction of my life to pursue this calling. From attorney to physician, it was the best decision I could have ever made. I am now one of those rare people that can say she absolutely loves her job. And with the hard work and sacrifices that came with this life change and the grueling medical training, I can now say I live my life in complete alignment with my values. The journey was wrought with seemingly impossible obstacles and turbulent waters. Time after time, challenges arose that caused me to doubt myself and my journey. And they still do. But I keep coming back. To the patients. To the humanity. To the inspiration that I gain day after day in this work from my colleagues and patients. I am proud and blessed to be doing what I love. To be part of this community of caregivers who work hard day after day. Not just to study and improve for the sake of their patients. But who maintain open hearts and thin skin — so that compassion and love can continue to permeate. So that each individual patient is a human, and not a number. So that we always know and remember the value of human life and human emotion. Because healing is not just about prescriptions, but about the openness of your heart and the depth of your gratitude. And I am grateful. Happy Women’s Physician Day!!
Your brain on yoga
Almost all human cells reproduce on a cycle. Up to 10% of your heart is replaced each year. Red blood cells are replaced every three months. Skin cells, every two weeks.
But it has traditionally been accepted that neurons, the cells that make up the brain and spinal cord, do not regenerate. Based on recent discoveries, it turns out that, under the right conditions, neurons can indeed recover. They just need a break. That’s why, in modern medicine, we will sometimes induce comas and hypothermia in patients with brain injury; so that their brains can rest. It’s pretty incredible that if you can break your neurons from normal operations and focus on healing, they have a chance at regrowth.
So that just begs the question, how can we give our neurons a break, with less extreme measures such as induced hypothermia or coma state? How can we take a deep breath, in this moment, and stop all the bustling chaos in our brains and give our neurons the break they need in our muddled daily lives? It’s human nature to want to fix what’s broken. And we have the tools to fix it. Take a moment right now to close your eyes and take a deep breath in and out. Try it again. And one more time. We may not be able to replicate exactly what we lost. But in its place we can grow something new. And slowly, but surely, we can grow until we have everything we need.
Leaning in
Leaning in.
During these last few weeks and months, dozens of opportunities have been proposed to me for future endeavors; from medicine, to yoga, to business, to real estate (yes I’m trying to buy a home, a whole new level of stress). It’s been a little overwhelming. And interesting. For the last 10 years, I have been waiting for this moment. This moment when my schedule would no longer be monopolized by impossibly long hours in the hospital, only to then go home and attempt to keep my eyes, swollen with exhaustion, open to study. All in the pursuit of being the kind of doctor that deserved to be of service to my fellow human.
For the last 10 years, I have sacrificed every free moment in my life in the pursuit of my medical education; declined social engagements, turned down romantic advances, missed important family functions, and sacrificed countless hours of sleep and self-care. And now my time has come. As I near the end of my formal medical training, the opportunities have started to reveal themselves. I sometimes ask myself if this will be my defining moment. In what direction will my life go from here? What kind of doctor/person/yogi/healer will I be? What am I capable of. The opportunities will come and go, but how will I stand steady within my values, yet allow myself to bend, but not break with the changing winds?
I am listening to it all; and opening myself up to whatever the universe has in store for me. I am trusting my instincts and following the path that reveals itself. I’m choosing to lean in. What comes next universe? Bring it
What’s your favorite Christmas song?
Do you have a favorite Christmas song? We all do, even if we don’t celebrate Christmas. We all notice ourselves whistling or humming along to a tune on the radio with an inevitable shoulder wiggle to the happy tunes that seems to follow us into every venue during the month of December. Two weeks ago, when I was on shift in the intensive care unit (ICU), the family of a patient I had been caring for all week came in and surrounded her bed. I was sitting at a computer station close to her room, and suddenly heard “Last Christmas” by Wham! playing. It’s not often that one hears music in the ICU – the only sounds are typically a flurry of alarms that signal at different pitches and speeds to help the listener quickly decipher the acuity of the distress. Happy, winsome music is not the norm.
Then the family, which consisted of her adult children, their spouses and some nieces, all started singing. “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart… but the very next day, you gave it away….” They had horrible pitch; all singing at different tempos. “This year, to save me from tears… I’ll give it to someone special.” I noticed my forehead wrinkling as I tried to hold back tears, but they came anyway, a steady quiet stream of thick salty drops welled up in my eyes and down my cheeks. I wrapped it up and sent it… with a note saying, “I love you, ” I meant it”… Music unites us. It brings us together, and it’s what we recognize, even when we are about to take our last breaths. They were saying goodbye to their mom.
One of the daughters peeked out to me, and asked, “Is this ok? It’s her favorite song.” I sniffed back my tears, smiled and nodded, Of course it is. They played it over and over again and sang it to her, over and over again, for the next hour until she passed. They let her go with the embrace of music, and their united voices, in love and tribute to her.
The holidays are strange, aren’t they? We look forward to them for the time off, but we often forget that it is a time to connect and unite. Look to the person next to you and ask them what their favorite Christmas song is, then tell them yours. We never know when it may be our Last Christmas. And when it is, I hope they sing you your favorite song too.