6 Ways You Can Earn an Income as a Meditation Teacher

Teaching meditation is immensely rewarding work and becoming an increasingly valued and sought-after skill in Australia.

More and more, and especially since the covid pandemic, there is a growing demand from people wanting practical tools, tips and practices to strengthen focus and concentration, manage emotional reactions and intensity, enhance executive thinking, and boost mental health, wellbeing, and resilience. And they are willing to pay for it.

Wonderful and Heart-warming Ways to Earn an Income Teaching Meditation

“The application of meditation and mindfulness is so diverse, and there are lots of various opportunities to share this gift with others in exchange for money. The thing I love most about meditation is that it has the capacity to evolve with me, my clients and my business.” Lauren Howe, ACMM Coach and Business Owner

In a modern Western context such as Australia, ancient Eastern meditative practices are being adapted and integrated to support people to better navigate the daily struggles of being human in many wonderful and heart-warming ways. What could be more ideal for a meditation teacher than to share the gift of meditation and earn an income from it, expressing their love, joy, creativity, and enthusiasm in the world and helping others to help themselves?

For those interested in ways to earn an income from meditation teaching, this blog provides real-life examples of paid meditation teaching opportunities and jobs delivered by ACMM Coaches. We hope this provides inspiration and motivation for you to consider the possible ways you too can earn an income as a meditation teacher and create a sustainable meditation teaching business.

But Should I Charge for Meditation Teaching?

But first, for those who feel uncomfortable with the idea of charging for meditation teaching, you are not alone. Whether to charge or not is a personal choice, as is the choice to pay for meditation teaching or not. There is much meditation and spiritual teaching available for free out there, and no one is forced to pay if they don’t want to, while it is perfectly valid to choose how one wants to give or receive these teachings.

If you are a meditation teacher, in a modern Western context, like Australia, unsure whether to charge for your services, you might like to consider that:

Meditation is a very practical skill with numerous tangible benefits that like most skills is often more effectively and efficiently learned via a qualified and experienced teacher rather than ‘do-it-yourself’
Becoming an experienced and qualified meditation teacher takes years of learning, practice, practise, and study, all of which requires time and money. (Read our blog How do you get certified as a meditation teacher? for more info!)
Here is Australia, we live in a society in which it takes money to survive. How can a person continue to work and help people if they cannot live?
In my experience, human beings usually equate money with value, and people gain more value from meditation teaching when they exchange something of value for it, usually money as that is the currency we operate with. When someone gives money for something, they want to receive value for it. They try harder. They listen. They are more serious about the information. They practise! They attend more. Human psychology compels us to want what we pay for, and I find people gain more when they pay.
As meditation teachers we help boost people’s wellbeing, just as musicians, artists, nurses, chefs and many other occupations do. We are happy to pay for their services, why should meditation teaching be any different? If you become wealthy as a result, why would that be an issue? Wealth in itself is not a problem, it’s what we do with our money that matters.
Earning money from teaching meditation allows you to live your life: to eat, to take care of your health, to feed, house and education yourself, to look after you family
By charging for meditation teaching, you are not forcing anyone to pay, and it doesn’t mean you are manipulating or exploiting anyone, or even being greedy. On the contrary, you are empowering people to ease the human suffering in their lives.
Lastly and most importantly, wouldn’t the highest ideal for anyone be to earn their living doing something they love, sharing their joy, passion, creativity and truth with others? And to allow people to thank them in return by paying them, instead of preventing this free flow and exchange of giving and receiving and expressing gratitude.

“I love creating themed courses, workshops or other experiences where meditation becomes the main vehicle for improving a tangible aspect of our lives. For example, Meditation for Sleep, or Anxiety or Focus. Offerings like this give meditation a very practical application and work best when they come from a combination of our own experimentation coupled with research. They also enable clients to experience practical outcomes and see the real benefits of meditation.” Lisa Forde, Founder and Principal ACMM and Vice-President, Meditation Australia

How to Express Your Joy?

Great. Now that all that is said! What might you do in the world to express your love, joy, creativity, passion, and enthusiasm for teaching meditation, while allowing the world to repay you for your service in a way that lets you live and function in the world, to provide for yourself and your family?

Joseph Campbell famously said, “Follow your bliss”. If you love teaching meditation, then follow that bliss and offer your services in a professional way that honours your truth, your interests, expertise, and skills and creates opportunities to earn an income. Stay true to your values, your passions and integrity and let yourself be surprised by the opportunities that can arise!

6 Ways to Earn an Income Through Teaching Meditation

It’s so inspiring to learn of some of the amazing ways people teach and guide meditation practices. Many thanks to the lovely coaches at ACMM for sharing some of the many and varied ways they have received payment for teaching and guiding meditation.

1. ‘User pays’: A direct exchange with those who benefit from your services.

This may take the form of offering private courses or workshops, facilitating groups, or one-to-one coaching or mentoring sessions. In general, you or your business manage all aspects of offering the service from marketing and promotions to preparing and delivery the content and sessions to administration and liaising with customers. Your offerings may be designed for beginners or more advanced meditators, targeted groups, run as one-off or ongoing sessions, and delivered in person or online. Provided there is interest in your offerings, you have complete freedom to create and deliver what you love and are passionate about.

Here are some possibilities:

Regular community meditation groups (e.g., focused on improving sleep)
Private classes (e.g., a ‘closed’ group of regular customers you teach and guide)
Creating courses and group meditation classes (e.g., 5-week Beginners Course)
Running one-day or multi-day retreats
Facilitating women’s or men’s circles and gatherings
One on one teaching/mentoring/coaching sessions
Children’s mindfulness programs and workshops
Themed workshops (e.g., Learn to Meditate, Journaling Workshops)
Facilitating Sound Meditation sessions and events
Collaborations with complementary teachers such as Yoga teachers, fitness trainers or other meditation teachers to combine expertise and run wholistic workshops, programs, or events (a great option to share the workload, share the nerves and co-create with!)
Meditation Support Groups
Special events such as circles and ceremonies on solstices and equinoxes

For further inspiration and tips, read some of our other helpful blogs:

What does a meditation teacher do?

How do you design a meditation course?

5 Simple Ways to Start a Meditation Class

How do you start a Meditation Business?

Or, visit the Skills Workshop Video Library for how-to sessions on Conducting One to One Meditation Sessions and Running a Group Session.

2. Organisation Pays You as a Contractor

An organisation, such as a corporation or business, hospital, school, yoga studio, nursing home, government department, NGO (non-profit, non-government organisation) or other, pays for your service to be delivered to their employees or ‘clients’. In this case you might approach or be approached by the organisaion to deliver your meditation teaching services to their community as an independent contractor, on site or online. Often in this case the organisation will manage marketing, promotions, and client liaison, and may also want to shape or inform the content being delivered according to their goals and objectives, for example to cultivate wellbeing, resilience, focus, compassion, or self-care skills.

Some possibilities in this category include:

Corporate/workplace programs and workshops
Corporate/workplace guided meditation sessions
1:1 Corporate mindfulness training
Teach/Coach for a Meditation Teacher Training Institute, such as ACMM, to support others who want to be meditation teachers
Run tailored programs, workshops, classes, or groups for School Students
Run tailored programs, workshops, classes, or groups for University Students
Run tailored programs, workshops, classes, or groups for a Yoga Studio
Contract to NGOs or community groups to run in-house meditation classes or groups
Run tailored programs, workshops, classes, or groups for Hospitals (patients and/or staff)

The possibilities here are endless and exciting. Who would you like to work with? With whom would you like to share your passion, creativity and skills? Teaching meditation has so many potential benefits for so many groups of people. If you are willing to put yourself out there, pitch your idea and accept any “No thank yous” you may receive, the sky is really the limit. For further ideas and support to pitch your services to an organisation, read this ACMM blog, How to write winning business proposals!

3. Apply for Grants and Sponsorship

Another way to receive financial payment for your meditation teaching services is to apply for a grant or sponsorship. There are many funding opportunities out there, from government – local, state, and federal – as well as various other public and private funding bodies. Although the application process might seem a little daunting, if you ensure you are eligible and meet all application requirements, you’d be surprised how much funding is out there unallocated and unused. Or, just ask your government representative!

Some possibilities in this category of funding include:

Regular local community centre meditation sessions paid for by the City Council
Bushfire recovery initiative – Mindfulness sessions in small rural communities funded by local council grants
Government grants to help refugees build mental health
Mental Health, Community, Wellbeing, and Resilience Grants – research in your area to see what is available and who or what service is eligible.

4. Create a Product to Sell

To complement your meditation teaching, you might consider creating physical or digital products to sell. Creating and selling your wares can become a great form of passive income.

Some possibilities include:

Book sales – write a book and get it published!
Merchandise sales such as t-shirts, tote bags, aromatherapy oil blends and rollers, meditation cushions!
Create digital courses to sell online on platforms such as Teachable or your website + YouTube.
Create meditation audios and sell them online (Read our blog 5 Tips on Selling Meditations Online for tips)
Professional Speaking – professional speakers get paid good money to speak about topics they love and know about.
Create a Podcast or YouTube videos and sell advertising space or seek commercial sponsorship.

The beauty of this option is that once the work is done, you can make repeat sales without requiring too much more of your time and energy.

5. Get on an App

Receive financial payment for your meditations and teachings from one of the thousands of meditation apps in operation, such as Insight Timer.

6. Rent Your Space

If you have a space, either physical or digital, you can sub-let your space to other meditation teachers. Space, especially appropriate, comfortable and inviting physical space is such a valuable asset for meditation teachers. Be a good landlord and kindly rent your wellness/meditation/yoga centre venue to meditation teachers.

7. Donations

If you don’t want to charge directly for your services, you might crowd fund, ask for donations, barter, or trade your services as per a more traditional approach to meditation teaching. Many online platforms such as SoundCloud and website hosting sites offer a function to receive donations from your listeners and supporters. Alternatively, if you live within a supportive community, you might receive board, food, clothing, whatever is needed to survive, in exchange for your teaching.

Does this spark your creativity around what is possible when it comes to earning an income through teaching meditation? Or perhaps you have found other ways to exchange value for your meditation teaching services? Let us know in the comments!

At ACMM we offer Certificate, Advanced Certificate and Diploma Training Options, with optional Business Development Support alongside and after your training. PLUS we now offer a Community Work Placement program as part of the Diploma course, where students will be given opportunities to teach meditation within support service organisations such as Aged Care, Hospitals and other Not for Profits and receive all they need to teach a 6 week course. Click here to learn more.

Find out if our courses are the right fit for you. Book a Zoom Discovery Call with Lisa Forde, ACMM Founder today!

Blog by ACMM Coach Jen Hill

Thank you to Tim James, Susie McPhie, Lauren Howe, Sammy Wynn, Morgan Jai-Morincome, Lisa Forde and Brea Willingham for contributing to this blog.