Two Yoga Teachers Teach Yoga on Nostr Now

Finally, I am joined by a second yoga teacher on Nostr and this makes my day! (I do NOT use the word “finally” lightly, either!)

I began teaching value-for-value yoga on the Nostr app Hivetalk on September 30, 2024. I was the first and there were (and are) no guarantees in offering V4V content. This is true whether it’s music, yoga class, art, whatever. You may or may not find an audience or earn any money.

Fortunately for me, someone has shown up to my class every week, even if it was only one person. I even earned some zaps doing it. My best class zap-wise earned $62 via Bitcoin lightning zaps. (Zaps are sent via BTC on the Nostr apps themselves as Bitcoin’s lightning payment network is built in). Some of my classes earned me nothing or very little.

But all along, I’ve at least been building community.

Special thanks to Dan, who makes a weekly Bread & Toast cartoon, the hilarious Noshole, and The Rupert Dammit for showing up pretty much every week since September. 💜

Dan also created a Yogastr npub on Nostr, taking it upon himself to help promote the class, so we can grow it.

Like all things Nostr & V4V, the cream will rise.

If there’s interest, it will take off. If there’s not, it will die. I didn’t want to give up. While V4V isn’t guaranteed income, or even income at all some weeks, I knew if I kept showing up, I’d learn more about how it could work. I also knew that $62 isn’t life-changing money for me, an American, living in my country’s 5^th largest city.

In a country where that is life-changing money, how can someone do what I am doing? How can my V4V yoga class be replicated in a way that a yoga teacher in a country like Venezuela can teach an online class on Nostr and earn the equivalent of $62? I still don’t have these answers, but I know if I stop showing up, I certainly will never get them.

Meet Anna. She’s a yoga teacher living off-grid in the middle of the desert. Her fella, Desert Dave, is doing some awesome off-grid Bitcoin mining. This couple attended my yoga class last night and they had the best view of the sunset out in the desert!

(Hivetalk is like Zoom, so we could see their gorgeous setting).

I knew Dave had been encouraging Anna to share her yoga with the world of Nostr. This morning, I woke up to Anna sharing that she’s ready to teach yoga on Nostr too!

Welcome, Anna! Finally, I’m not the only one!

I’m going to have to set an alarm and show up for Anna. I’m asking others to do the same. Anna’s following on Nostr is 102 to mine, which is 1,791. We always say follower amount doesn’t matter on Nostr as it has no algorithms, so here’s a stress test of that idea. 💡

I want MOAR yoga teachers on Nostr. More spiritual, woo-woo folks. More healthy lifestyle folks dropping practical knowledge we can use in our every day lives. We’ve got a bunch so far, which is awesome. What I’d love even more is to see everyone spread ideas ON NOSTR as opposed to leading back to websites in the fiat world.

I get it. I do it, too. I’ve been on a yoga teaching platform called Wimy since last fall, where I have made $0. Like Nostr, it’s a new thing trying to take off. Both have been frustrating. However, I get much more out of teaching on Nostr than I do uploading videos to YouTube and slaving to get an audience. I have earned equal amounts of $0 between YouTube and Wimy. I took my yoga videos down from YouTube. Why bother? I’ll never win there. Will you?

Here’s the thing. If you upload hippy, woo-woo spiritual content to YouTube, you can’t gain traction. “We” often fall into the “ban those conspiracy theory people” category. We aren’t using the Approved Right Speak of YouTube and legacy social media platforms. We can’t all be Yoga with Adrienne either. Definitely don’t mention Reiki or astrology…

Nostr doesn’t shadowban or mute my hippy, woo-woo spiritual content. It doesn’t downvote content. I can post “unclean” versions of music on Nostr and it’s all good. RIP to the radio edit. RIP to radio. On Nostr, I can be myself. I can teach yoga on Hivetalk. I can post videos saying whatever I want.

I hope there will soon be enough of us offering yoga and lifestyle content on Nostr that we could have an online event for people to attend. Bring on the fitness, meditation, nutrition, and whatever else folks. The Nostr group, being heavy on Bitcoiners still, is not exactly big on eating Cheetos, if you get my drift. 😉

With that said, please bring this content to Nostr. Please come take a yoga class from Anna or myself. Come teach a yoga classs on Hivetalk or Zap.Stream. Lead an audio space on spiritality on Corny Chat or launch a V4V podcast about health. We have new ways of NOT being muted, finding an audience, and earning (maybe) a few bucks.

Most importantly, join me in taking Anna’s innaugural yoga class this Thursday morning, 6 am AZ time (PT) / 9 am ET / 1 pm UTC!