You walk into a coffee shop, pay for the coffee, it’s now yours — you get it and drink/consume it. You walk into a clothes store, pay for the clothes, they're now yours — you get them and wear/consume them. You walk into a car dealership (aka your neighborhoooood foooord store), pay for the car, it’s now yours — you get it and drive/consume it. You walk into a yoga studio …
In almost all markets, the process I laid out is how it goes down. (Yes, there are other models, like restaurants but stay with me here.)
Why is it with a yoga studio that consumers — customers — are confused? How is it that OVER and OVER yoga consumers DO NOT pay for their yoga?
With each of the products described above an energetic exchange occurs. The coffee is grown, harvested, shipped, roasted, packaged, shipped again (normally), brewed, packaged, served. The cotton is grown, harvested, shipped, processed into fabric, shipped again, processed into a garment, shipped again, packaged and sold. The car… you get the point! Each one of these processes require ENERGY. And the exchange we pay in our culture for this energy is ALMOST ALWAYS money.
With yoga, the studio space is rented, built out, the teachers are trained, the utilities are paid, the mats, towels and other products are available for rent or to buy and the instruction is provided. ENERGY. Some students pay for their class with energy — like cleaning the studio. This is an energetic exchange. Energy for energy. Most of the customers pay for their yoga with money.
Why would a consumer of yoga would expect something other than the same model that exists in every other marketplace? How is it possible for a person to walk into a yoga studio, take class, and walk out WITHOUT PAYING?
I have my theories as to why it is possible a person can walk into a yoga studio, NOT PAY for the yoga class, and walk out of the studio still without having paid and having set up no agreement to pay. Without getting into them, I ask you. As a studio owner or teacher, you certainly have seen this OVER and OVER. Why do you think this occurs in yoga? Does this make any sense?