Finding the Ideal Work Trade: a Primer for Yoga Teachers
A starter’s guide for traveling yoga teachers seeking work trade opportunities to live, work, teach, and practice yoga around the world.
At some point in life, every yoga teacher catches wanderlust and dreams of experiencing living, working, teaching, and practicing yoga abroad.
Likely you’ve noticed nomadic yogis leading what appear to be ideal lives in tropical paradises on Instagram and wonder how the heck they do it. Perhaps they have a secret patron with deep pockets, a trust fund, or have inherited money. While that may be the case for some, nowadays, there are more opportunities than ever for those who have an adventurous spirit and don’t mind earning their keep.
In this guide, I’ll introduce the concept of work trades, share my experience of doing one in Hawaii, and then give you my tips for going about the process yourself.
Introducing Work Trades
A work trade is an arrangement where a host exchanges food and accommodation for a few hours of work each day. On a weekly basis, most require that you work up to twenty-five hours and give you at least two days off.
The beauty of a work trade position is that it is temporary, you don’t have to pay for accommodation, you get a real insight to the local community and way of life, and you can choose a lifestyle that is unlike your typical day-to-day.
There are a variety of opportunities, some with no particular skill requirements. A lot of them are for manual labor such as cleaning, construction, or fruit picking. There are also jobs in retail, babysitting, teaching yoga, or practicing other healing modalities.
In this primer, I’ll share with you tips based on my experience of doing a work trade on the Big Island of Hawaii. However, the same principles could apply to any destination that takes your fancy and has a significant number of work trade opportunities.
My Work Trade Experience in Hawaii
How My Destination Chose Me
I’m American and had been living and teaching yoga in Brisbane, Australia. When the time came for me to choose my next destination, Hawaii inserted itself at the top of my list.
Actually, Hawaii had been calling my name for some time. My Instagram seemed to be flooded with images of the islands, their beautiful sights, and people teaching and practicing yoga there. Books about Hawaii found their way into my hands, people around me mentioned the islands, and a random tarot card reading suggested I might be happy on Hawaii (without me mentioning it at all!).
I didn’t think I’d be able to live there within my budget or find a job that would allow me to keep teaching yoga, but the call was strong enough that I decided to try anyway. A flight sale appeared to me with the subject line of Hawaii, and before I knew it, I had booked a flight there with no real plan but with faith that I’d figure something out.
Finding the Ideal Work Trade for Me
I had to find somewhere to live and work. Fortuitously, a friend suggested trying a work trade and recommended I check them out online.
I knew I wanted to be able to teach and practice yoga, so there were only a few hosts that appealed to me. One of them was the Kirpal Meditation and Ecological Center (KMEC) on the Big Island of Hawaii. This is where I ended up, and I highly recommend them.
Here’s their promo video (it’s aimed at paying retreat guests, not work-traders, but will give you an idea of what the overall property is like):
This position would have me working twenty-five hours per week in exchange for accommodation, and then I would pay one hundred and fifty dollars a month for food. They would provide me with three meals a day, all vegan, and gluten-free. I would also be able to eat any food that I harvested off the land as well.
My twenty-five hours would include a combination of teaching yoga, cleaning rooms, working in the kitchen, and working on the land. I would be living in a community with other work-traders.
This opportunity was also unique because the community and the property functioned as a retreat center and also a bed and breakfast facility. So we would have not only the other work traders in our community but also guests to look after and interact with. There could be anywhere from six to fifteen work traders and staff at a time, and the property could accommodate around twenty guests.
The Location
There are eight different climate zones on the Big Island. Kirpal is located in the Puna region of the Big Island, about an hour away from the town of Hilo and on the rainy side of the island, closer to the active volcanoes. This area is more tropical, with its fair share of heat, humidity, and rain.
This property is around eleven acres and full of fruit trees, cabins for both guests and staff, the main house where the owners lived, a meditation pavilion, and an open-air yoga hall called the “Yoga Hale” that gives a glimpse of the ocean.
The Yoga Hale ended up being where I spent most of my time, whether I was teaching, practicing, or just relaxing. It was my favorite spot on the property and where I was able to witness my yoga teaching and personal practice grow and evolve.
My Yoga Practice
Before arriving at Kirpal, I hadn’t had as much time as I would like to devote to my practice, creating sequences, and just playing with postures.
Yoga had been a significant part of my life for five years. I had done two different 200-hour yoga teacher training courses and taught for over three years, but it had always been something I’d had to juggle with other jobs, school, or just life in general.
Living off the grid, with minimal distractions from the real world, and with only a few hours to work each week, I was able to devote a lot more time to be both a student and a teacher. On most days, I spent two to four hours practicing, teaching, breaking down specific postures, or writing original sequences.
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois famously said, “Practice, and all is coming.” I definitely saw the benefit of putting in the work on and off my mat. I was able to devote time to particular skills, strengths, and areas of flexibility that I had been avoiding or just didn’t have the time to focus on previously, and saw my physical practice shift as a result. I even created a training plan so that each day I could devote time towards the progression of each of my goals.
The Community
Being my first time living in a remote community, it took a little getting used to. The number of work-traders and property guests fluctuated, but luckily there was always someone around to hang out with.
Living at Kirpal meant that I was with other yoga teachers who were supportive of my goals and would practice with me. There were days when I lacked the motivation to practice, but having them around and the time and space to make yoga a priority, I was able to progress further in my practice than I had since I first began my yoga journey.
Finding a Work Trade That’s Right for You
Step 1: Getting an Overview of Available Opportunities
To start, I suggest you check out several websites to get an idea of what kinds of work trades are available in various locations.
Workaway is the site I used to find my work trade. It has a database of families, individuals, or organizations in different countries who are looking for volunteer help in various fields.
You can search it based on keywords or location to see what is on offer that matches your preferences. If you find an opportunity that looks promising and want to apply, you’ll first have to pay a small membership fee to the site.
There are a few other sites similar to Workaway, so it is worth also checking them out to get an overview of what’s out there before you make a choice.
Here are a few worth checking out to get you started:
- HelpX (Help Exchange): Opportunities with farms, homestays, ranches, lodges, B&Bs, backpackers hostels and even sailing boats.
- WWOOF: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (the name says it all!)
- YogaTrade: As you probably guessed, this site offers opportunities from properties seeking to host yoga teachers.
- YogaTravelJobs: Similar to YogaTrade.
You’ll note that most of these sites use the words “Volunteer help.” This is because in most places it will be illegal for you to work explicitly for monetary compensation without an appropriate visa. By making it a barter system, they get around that.
These directory sites are often the best resource, however, sometimes local websites will list opportunities. For example, if you have a destination in mind and search Google for “placename yoga work trade,” you may discover opportunities listed on the sites of yoga studios or retreat venues in that area.
Step 2: Choosing Your Destination
Once you’ve gained an overview of the opportunities available, you can begin to search based on location and/or keywords. Then the rest of the work is in reading hosts’ descriptions, seeing what would fit you best, and applying.
- Supply-Demand: Some regions or locations will have more opportunities than others. The flip side of this is that the more desirable the opportunity, the more applicants there are likely to be.
- Teaching: Using the keyword “yoga” to narrow down your search will not necessarily bring up positions for teaching. Additionally, because you’ll only be working part-time as a work-trader, there may be opportunities to teach yoga on the side. This could be nearby or even teaching the other work-traders on the property where you’re based.
- Location: Some work trade positions are in somewhat remote areas. It’s worth looking into how close you are to the nearest city if that is important to you or you want to be able to get a side job. Personally, I found that stepping outside of my comfort zone temporarily to try living off the grid for a few months was a great experience.
- Free Time: For those wanting to have the time to practice and teach yoga, it is essential to find the right work trade. Luckily, I found one that allowed me the time and space to focus on my practice and be surrounded by other people who had yoga as part of their lives.
- Read Carefully: Regardless of your preferences, make sure to read the job descriptions thoroughly, see reviews of people that have work traded there previously, and keep an open mind as you send in an application and ask questions.
Step 3: Go!
Once you’ve found the right place, gotten there, and settled in, keep your goals in mind and don’t be afraid to seek a community that will help you progress forward with these goals.
What Are You Waiting For?
I hope you found this primer to be useful in figuring out what you’d like to do. Of course, there are downsides to doing a work trade, living off the grid, and in a community. However, I found they were substantially outweighed by the upside, and would definitely do it again.
Having time and space for yourself both on and off the mat is priceless and an opportunity I feel blessed to have experienced. If you are considering leaving your daily life to try work-trading, I encourage you to listen to the call, take the leap, and follow your heart where it leads you.
