Abundance Consciousness Checklist

Share Freely, Celebrate Others

Abundance: Share what you know with others. Scarcity: Keep useful info to yourself.

Abundance: Be happy when others do well. Scarcity: Secretly hope others don't succeed.

You know the teacher who won't share their favourite playlist? Or the studio owner who discovered a great wholesale supplier for props but keeps it quiet "in case the studio down the road finds out"? That's a scarcity mindset wearing a business hat. It looks strategic. It's actually just fear dressed up as savviness.

Abundance-minded yoga professionals share what's working because they trust there's enough to go around. The yoga community in your city isn't a pie with limited slices. A thriving studio down the street doesn't shrink your client base. It grows the local yoga culture, and that lifts everyone.

And when the teacher at the studio across town sells out a retreat you've been struggling to fill? The Buddhist concept of Mudita, sympathetic joy, is the practice of genuinely celebrating another person's success. It's harder than it sounds. Especially when you're comparing follower counts or class sizes. But Mudita is a muscle. The more you practise it, the less someone else's success feels like your failure.

Stay Open, Keep Growing

Abundance: Welcome change. Try a new role or routine. Scarcity: Push back on any kind of change.

Abundance: Read or learn something new each day. Scarcity: Scroll and watch TV instead of learning.

Studios that resist change tend to plateau. The class schedule that worked two years ago might not serve your current community. The pricing structure you copied from another studio might not reflect your actual costs. Welcoming change doesn't mean chasing every trend. It means staying honest about what's working and being willing to adjust when it isn't.

There's a version of you that finishes teaching, sits on the sofa, and scrolls Instagram for an hour. There's another version that reads a chapter of a book on anatomy, or watches a tutorial on assists, or listens to a podcast about running a small business. Neither version is a bad person. But one is feeding the abundance mindset and the other is feeding the algorithm.

Release and Rise

Abundance: Let go of past hurt. Forgive and move on. Scarcity: Hold grudges and criticise.

Abundance: Think big. Ask "how can this change lives?" Scarcity: Think "what's in it for me?" first.

That student who left a one-star review. The teacher who quit mid-term and took three regulars with them. The landlord who hiked the rent without warning. You remember all of it. And some of it still stings when you think about it. Holding onto that anger is human. But it's also heavy. And it quietly colours how you show up for your community. Forgiveness isn't approval. It's freedom. And as a studio owner, the grudges you carry take up space that could be holding something much more useful.

When you're designing a new workshop or planning a retreat, what's the first question you ask? "How much can I charge?" or "What would genuinely help my students right now?" Both questions matter. But which one leads says a lot about where your mindset sits. Aparigraha, non-greed, is the Yama that keeps showing up here. Not as a vow of poverty, but as a reminder that when you lead with service, the business side tends to follow.

Gratitude and Direction

Abundance: Notice the good things. Write down three daily. Scarcity: Think "I deserve this" without earning it.

Abundance: Set goals and work towards them daily. Scarcity: Avoid making plans. Just wing it.

The Sanskrit word Kritajna translates roughly to "one who knows what has been done for them." It's gratitude, but with texture. Not a vague feeling of thankfulness. An active noticing. You had four students show up to your 6am class in January. That's not failure. That's four people who chose your teaching over a warm bed in the dark. Write it down. The studio owner who journals three good things from each day learns to see the studio half full, not half empty. That's abundance consciousness in its simplest form.

Sankalpa is the yogic practice of setting a heartfelt intention, a resolve. Not a vague wish. A clear direction. Do you have one for your studio? Not just "I want more students" but something specific. "I want to launch a mentorship programme for new teachers by September." "I want to fill my Saturday morning class consistently by summer." Write it down. Put it somewhere you'll see it. The scarcity counterpart is winging it, treating your business like something that just happens to you rather than something you're actively building. Clarity of direction creates momentum. Vagueness creates drift.

Kindness in Word and Action

Abundance: Give honest, uplifting compliments. Scarcity: Criticise more than you compliment.

Abundance: Spread kindness and good energy. Scarcity: Hold on to anger and resentment.

Abundance: Talk about ideas and what's possible. Scarcity: Talk about people instead of ideas.

Pay attention to what fills your conversations. If you spend more time talking about other teachers than about ideas, workshops, or possibilities, that's a signal. An abundance mindset leads with genuine compliments. Not flattery. Honest recognition. "Your adjustment in triangle was really clear today." Specific. True. Generous. The scarcity counterpart criticises more than it praises, and over time, that erodes trust in every relationship it touches.

Ahimsa, the first of the Yamas, is usually translated as non-violence. But it runs deeper than not causing physical harm. It's non-harm in thought, in speech, in the energy you bring into your studio. When you're carrying resentment from last year's conflict into this year's team meeting, that's a subtle form of violence against yourself and everyone in the room. The antidote isn't pretending it didn't happen. It's making a deliberate choice to release it.

Own It, Grow From It

Abundance: Own your mistakes and learn from them. Scarcity: Blame others when things go wrong.

Abundance: Write in a journal to reflect and grow. Scarcity: Never reflect. Avoid journaling.

Abundance: Say "well done" to someone, and mean it. Scarcity: Take credit for someone else's work.

Abundance: Keep a to-do list or vision board. Scarcity: Never set clear goals or a vision.

When a booking goes wrong or a student complains, the scarcity mindset looks for someone else to blame. The payment system. The front desk. The student themselves. Abundance says: "That was on me. Here's what I'll do differently." It's uncomfortable in the moment. But it builds the kind of trust that no amount of marketing can buy.

This is Svadhyaya in action. Self-study. Self-reflection. The Niyamas don't just apply during your personal practice. Keeping a journal, even three lines before bed, forces you to process rather than coast. What went well in class today? What fell flat? What do I want to try differently? Studio owners who reflect grow faster than those who wing it, because they're actually learning from their own experience instead of repeating the same year five times.

And when your fellow teacher nails a workshop or fills a retreat you've been struggling to sell? Say it. Mean it. The scarcity mindset takes credit for shared wins or quietly resents someone else's success. The yogic tradition has a word for this too: Asteya, non-stealing. Taking credit for another teacher's sequencing idea, their playlist, their client relationship. It's subtle theft. Recognising someone else's contribution costs nothing and builds everything. Vision boards might feel a bit woo for some, but the underlying principle is sound: know where you're going and acknowledge those who help you get there.

It's a Mirror, Not a Scorecard

If you read through those pairs and felt a twinge of recognition on both sides, good. That's the point. Abundance consciousness isn't a permanent state you achieve and then coast on. It's a daily practice. Some days you journal and set intentions and genuinely celebrate a colleague's success. Other days you scroll Instagram for an hour and silently resent someone's sold-out retreat. You're human. The checklist is just a way to notice where you are.

What's interesting is how many of these pairs connect back to the Yamas and Niyamas. Asteya, Ahimsa, Aparigraha, Svadhyaya, Sankalpa. These aren't abstract philosophy. They're practical operating instructions for living and working with more awareness. If this checklist sparked something, the Yamas and Niyamas are worth revisiting as a deeper framework. We'll dig into that in a future piece.

For now, download the printable PDF. Pin it to your studio wall, stick it in your journal, or share it with a fellow teacher. Sometimes the most useful thing is a simple reminder of which side you want to be on.