We’ve both been subjected to a lot of violence in our lives.

We’ve both had guns pointed at us. We’ve been in abusive relationships. We’ve both experienced the extreme of violence, having others try to kill us. We’ve been slapped around, berated, bullied, beaten, blackmailed, abused and humiliated. We’ve had malicious rumors told about us, we’ve been stabbed in the back, and had the things we’ve held dearest taken from us by people we trusted. We know what it’s like to be a victim.

This article is not about that.

This is about people pretending to be victims in order to exploit others. This is about how to respond if you are victimized, and how the urge for vengeance that often accompanies it can take us away from our spiritual path.

It is so very easy to play the victim. Victims are never responsible for their actions, merely responding to stimuli. Victims are coddled, and cared for. Victims have our sympathy. They have our sympathy because we have all been injured—we’ve been victims.

But when people manipulate it, this amounts to exploitation. As victims, we stood up to our attackers. We stood up for ourselves and walked out of abusive relationships.  We confronted every attacker we have faced. This gave us strength and allowed us to move beyond being victims; it allowed us to be ourselves.

When someone has been truly injured or violated, they deserve our love and compassion. But when people manipulate our empathy to play the victim they seek advantage and attention. They are exploiting our emotions to serve the selfish needs of their ego. Even worse, they can hurt innocent people in the process.

Overblown or feigned injury has been used to justify aggression and violence throughout history. Hitler justified his 1939 invasion of Poland by claiming that ethnic Germans were being persecuted there.

In 1994 when the President of Rwanda’s plane was shot down, Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi minority and called for their extermination, touching off 100 days of killing that left over 800,000 dead.

The United States invaded Iraq in 2003, claiming not only that it was linked to the attacks on 9/11 but that it was developing weapons of mass destruction. While neither of these was true, much injury was caused to thousands on both sides as vengeance was sought in the name of a lie…from a nation playing the victim.

It also happens in our own communities. In the yoga studio scene, this manifests when teachers leave one studio to open their own business. The departing teachers are often accused of stealing contact information for students, or just stealing students. The departing teachers claim abuses at the hands of their former employers. We have seen studio owners actually abuse and harass employees then turn around and make outrageous and false claims about them, harming the teacher’s reputation. There are also the rumors started between rival teachers, claiming incompetence or negligence.

Sometimes both sides hold a contest to see who can garner the most sympathy but in many cases, one party asks you to choose sides and heap scorn on the other while the other remains either conciliatory or silent, and moves on.

How do we discern the difference between a call for justice as opposed to a call for vengeance (whether the reasons are true or not)? How can we tell when our empathy is being manipulated for malefic reasons?

Imagined or otherwise, vengeance is always wrong and while justice calls for an end to violence, vengeance perpetuates it. Regardless of whether someone is an actual or feigned victim, vengeance is never justified.   The bloody history of war and genocide in the Balkans, with centuries of violence justified by calls for vengeance is a very visible example of this dynamic.

We can tell the difference because the true victim calls for justice, and justice is a call for the end of violence. The true victim confronts the perpetrator and brings attention to the appropriate authorities. They do not create an angry mob to wreak havoc and destruction. They do not seek attention, they do not feed their ego.

Those that manipulate and exploit our good nature call for vengeance. This only perpetuates violence, whether it be physical or energetic. These are the people that demand the attention of others. They need to create drama, and keep themselves in the center of controversy, safely insulated in the cloak of victimhood.

And what if you or someone you love is actually victimized, does that then justify vengeance? Is revenge ever excusable?

The universal message of the divine, in all its forms, is to not heed the siren call of vengeance, which speaks to our visceral selves, but to respond from our soul with love and compassion. While on the path of yoga we seek to honor and abide by ahimsa, non-harming. Christianity and Buddhism offer us some of the clearest explanations of how to respond from our soul when our lizard brain urges us to react with vengeance.

Jesus told his followers, “You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also…do not repay evil with evil. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

A quote often attributed to the Buddha, but actually from Buddhaghosa says; “When someone has done us wrong, we fly into a hot rage and fierce fury! But why then do we thus repeat and commit the same evil as we just blamed the others? If you are in rage, and longing for revenge, whether you return some evil to him or not, you will ever more torture yourself with the pain that always inherently is born of any hate.”

Indeed, trusting in the law of karma can be challenging when faced with an onslaught of hatred and bitterness.  Our ego and natural survival instincts kick in and the sweet taste of bringing vengeance upon those who have caused us suffering can be hard to resist.  It can be hardest to resist not when revenge is beyond our powers but when it is well within our grasp.

But it was Mahatma Gandhi, a man who could have easily called on his hundreds of millions of followers to visit violence upon their British occupiers. Instead,  he chose to forgo vengeance and seek justice through a path of peace and compassion.

The law of karma is no different than what the Apostle Paul told the Romans when he said, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.” In his letter to the Galatians, he advised them, “As you sow so shall you reap.” Indeed, the divine order of the universe brings justice but if we seek to salve our ego by doing it ourselves, we suffer in the process. By committing the same act as the aggressor, we become the aggressor ourselves. We also become hypocrites.

As Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami reminds us, “The karma of retaliation returns to the perpetrators with three times the force.”   Indeed, in taking revenge, we perpetuate the cycle of violence and hatred while adding to our own karmic debt.   In the process, we cause others to seek revenge—moving all of us further from the path of seeking unity with the divine within ourselves and the universe.

Staying true on our spiritual path is not easy while also living in this world but then again, its not supposed to be. Our soul experiences greatly development while inhabiting these bodies which come equipped with a mammalian brain wired the same way it was 10,000 years ago and an ego which often masquerades as consciousness. Without these challenges, our soul lacks the opportunities it needs to grow and develop.

By bringing discernment to our practice, we can sense when our ego (or some other person’s ego) is urging vengeance and respond instead with compassion and justice. This will keep us in our practice, which transforms us into the pure embodiment of love and unifies us with the divine.

Isn’t that why we’re practicing in the first place?

Co-written by Maya Devi Georg and Chris Courtney

Utkatasana is a powerful standing pose that can build heat quickly and for beginners, it makes your legs shake like Elvis.

The asana (pose) draws its name from the  Sanskrit root word utkata, which gives this pose its name, means fierce, wild,  powerful, frightening, or intense.

Some people call it chair pose (since it resembles hovering your hips above a chair) but I think this loses so much of this asana’s meaning. I prefer to stick with the old school definition; fierce—but not in the way this word is normally used these days.

So often, it seems, we associate a word with the word that usually follows it; fierce and strong, fierce and mean, fierce and tough.

Ask the average person to make a fierce face and they’ll usually scrunch up their face in an angry scowl, almost as if they are trying to look like the Hulk.

In a world which already has so with so much violence, aggression and injustice, isn’t it time we reclaim this word, and the asana which bears its name? Why does fierce or powerful need to denote something aggressive or angry? Does thinking of such things serve your intentions? Probably not.

How about reprogramming ourselves to think first of fierce love, fierce devotion, fierce dedication, or fierce compassion? For this reason, I ask my students to smile in this asana and think of what they feel fiercely about. I see their faces; the mother’s fierce love for her child, the musician’s fierce determination to mastering his instrument, the nurse’s fierce devotion to caring for others every day, and of course the yogi/ni’s fierce dedication to their practice.

So, next time your teacher guides you into utkatasana (apologies to my regular students—I know it can sound like a broken record), how about letting a big smile or look of calm determination come across your face and think about the the other side of the word fierce; fierce love, fierce devotion, fierce compassion, fierce dedication.

A few faces to try:

Fierce Love:

Fierce compassion:

Fierce dedication:

Twenty classes for $20—come and get it before midnight! For the cash strapped yoga enthusiast, these deals are hard to resist so they get bought up by thousands of people in cities all over the USA.

According to experienced studio owners like Maya Georg, founder of Sani Yoga in Albuquerque, “aggressive salespersons from these sites are constantly hounding studio owners with a hard sell to sign up for these deals with promises to to expand your presence and get free advertising.” If only it were all that simple.

Hey, I’ve even posted links to such ads on my Facebook wall for studios where I was teaching, but the more I’ve seen the effect daily deal sites have on yoga studios and communities, the more I’m convinced they are bad for yoga in America. Here is why:

It Changes The Energy Of The Studio.

It all starts at class check-in time with a line of people out the door and a teacher and/or work trade student working the desk and either starting the class late or seeing a stream of new students (sometimes still wearing their shoes) come walking into class several minutes late.

Teaching in the aftermath of a big daily deal offer is like watching a herd of buffalo stampede into your classes, changing the vibe and dynamic you’ve taken months or years to cultivate with your students.

We’ve all seen it, right? So often these new students arriving en masse do not understand basic yoga etiquette and require extra special attention to keep them safe. As a teacher, you end up going into workshop mode on the basics much more often, which is not a bad thing—while the more experienced students feel like they are circling back rather than advancing their practice. Basically, it changes the relationship between the studio and its student community, and seldom for the better.

Flows and sequences you’ve developed and grown with your students end up being modified and watered down while your loyal regular students seem perplexed and not as satisfied as they once were.  Its not uncommon for a regular student say they’ll stop coming to class until the daily deal herd has moved on to the next studio.

While such a setup could work if these new students were buying into an introductory program where they could learn the basics and then move into regular classes, few studios ever make this arrangement and rather use it as a way to fill classes and get the “energy up.”  The problem is that too often, it has the opposite effect.

 It Has A Corrosive Effect On The Community.

This stampede of new yoga students paying next to nothing for yoga classes does not go unnoticed by the loyal student community, who have been buying 10 class packs and doing monthly auto-withdrawal deals with the studio for years. Many of them are on a tight budget as well but they make decisions in their life that enable them to keep supporting the studio community.

How should they feel upon seeing their favorite studio offering classes to others at 90 percent off what they have been paying all along? And in the process, these same people paying next to nothing have changed and watered down the groove of the classes they loved the most. So, by taking this shortcut effort to grow the student base, the studio begins to alienate the loyal student community it worked so hard to cultivate. Is that fair to anyone?

 Its Not Really Effective For Growing A Student Base.

Some yoga studios decide to do a daily deal offer as a way to attract new students but in the end, its not been proven an effective way to draw and retain the students who will make up a real community.

Depending on how pervasive such deals are in a given city, its possible for people to buy up several daily deals for yoga and go to classes for about $1 each for an entire year. In fact, I know of few people I know do just that.  There are certain people who will always take the cheapest option available to them and bounce around to wherever they can take a class (regardless of quality) while paying as little as possible. While a studio may be able to retain a few of these students, 95 percent of them are just looking for the next good deal to move onto and the remaining 5% could have been attracted to the studio anyway for far trouble, cost and effort.

The assumptions made when deciding to try a daily deal offer would be valid if it was the only studio in town making the offer but we all know that is not the case. As soon as one studio advertises a daily deal offer, others follow suit with several studios all chasing after the honor of hosting the same herd of deal-seekers at a rate of $1-2 per class.

So, instead of growing a student community, it creates a localized race to the bottom that changes the entire local yoga scene, making it more competitive than collaborative.

It’s a Danger To A Studio’s Survival.

I’ll come right out and say it, relying on daily deal sites can present a very real danger to a studio’s survival.  And whether you’re a studio owner or support a studio you love, there are some things to be aware of.

If a studio offers a standard daily deal such as 20 classes for $20, and sell 1000 of them, the gross on that sale is $20,000—but only half of that goes to the studio with the daily deal site keeping the other half (if not more).  With a low end average price of about $10 for a yoga class, this means the studio is now on the hook to deliver $200,000 worth of yoga classes for an intake of just $10,000 (in some cases, the studio gets even less).  The reality is that its just plain impossible to pay the rent on the space, keep it clean and beautiful, and pay teachers with these deeply cut rates. So, the studio takes a big hit financially right from the start.

And the response to this observation is usually that revenue from the existing student base will be enough to carry the studio along through the wave of daily deal students, but that’s not usually how it works.

First, the loyal students will begin to ask if they can buy the deal too.  This places the studio in a tough spot of either telling a loyal student that they must continue to pay full price or giving them the same deal as the newbies and thus cutting further into the studio revenues necessary to keep the place running.

Secondly, the changed energy of the studio leads some students to leave and find another place to practice, even if they love their teachers (they’ll usually start taking more classes at another place the teacher is working).

End result:  more lost revenue, a smaller student community, and a more competitive (instead of collaborative) local yoga community.  In my humble opinion, it’s a big reason why we see so many more yoga studios opening and then soon closing these days – especially the ones that have relied on daily deal sites to attract new students.

Even worse, it makes people think that a yoga class is only worth $1, cheapening every aspect of the practice, the work teachers put into it, our lineage, and the sacred spaces in which we share this gift.

What Can You Do About It?

There are other more effective and less energetically turbulent ways to grow your student base but just like yoga itself, they are slow and require patience and persistent practice.

Think about the most solid and longstanding yoga communities in your city and I’ll bet you never see them offering daily deals to get people in the door. Chances are, they started small, stayed authentic, and built a community with their students over time—focusing on serving the students who came through their doors.

A prime example that comes to mind for me is Vital Yoga in Denver, Colorado. Fourteen years ago, Micah Springer started a studio in a small 320-square-foot studio in her basement and soon her sister Desi was onboard. The two sisters took their time building a true community and today that studio is now the expansive and vibrant Vital Yoga in the Highlands district of Denver, offering 50 classes per week in rooms which can hold over 100 students.

One very simple low-tech way to bring new people into a studio is to periodically offer a “Bring a Friend For Free” week so regular students can bring a friend in to try yoga. This method is not only less turbulent and costly as a daily deal site, but it strengthens, rather than weakens connections within the studio’s community.  Plus, the chances of retention are much higher since there is already a personal bond between the student and the friend they bring with them.

Another idea from yoga teacher and therapist Sean Downes is to band together with other studios to offer a card that allows students to attend classes at one of several different studios—perhaps one to two classes at each of four to five studios—a sort of local yoga sampler card.  Such an approach would not only build collaborative ties within the local yoga community but give students a way to attend classes at several studios at a the same rate as buying a multi-class pass at a single studio.

But in the end, its truly about offering quality instruction from competent and compassionate teachers and continually renewing and strengthening the community.

As a student, you have the greatest impact on this since you make up the community at the studio (s) where you practice.  If you feel well served by a teacher, don’t you think they deserve to receive some value for the thousands of hours and dollars they’ve spent to prepare themselves to teach you, not to mention the love and care they put into crafting the class you’re taking with them today? Don’t you want the doors of your haven from the chaos of the outside world to stay open?  If so, why not do something about it?

I’ve lost count of how many times someone drinking a $5 iced mocha while reading a glossy $8 magazine and texting on their new iPhone told me they’d love to go to yoga more often but that its just too expensive.   Obviously for most people its not a matter of means but choices.

The choices we make every day on where to put our energy and where to spend our money make up both our lives and shape the world around us. And its not just yoga studios; it’s the bagel place around the corner or the cozy bookstore you now miss since they recently shut down.

So, instead of chasing after the latest online daily deal, how about taking a look at where you’re spending your time, energy, and money, walking into your favorite studio and making a commitment not only to your practice, but to the teachers and community which support it? It’s a great way to help ensure that the teachers and studios you love will be there with you along your journey.

You can find it nationwide at any Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble, Central Market, Pharmaca, and 10 other retailers.

This is an incredible honor not just because there are so great yoga teachers in Albuquerque, but because you believe in me.  You are the reason I teach yoga and your kindness leaves me incredibly humbled.

A review of Ramesh Bjonnes’ new book:  Sacred Body, Sacred Spirit: A Personal Guide to the Wisdom of Yoga and Tantra.

In 2008 as the U.S. financial system was in teetering on the edge of disaster, a fearful and confused public was not able to understand the complexities of why and how we had gotten into such a mess. The complex and tangled web of credit default swaps, derivative markets and unprecedented risks the banks had taken were not fully appreciated by the public until Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren came along to explain them in language lay persons could understand.

Her ability to explain complex concepts to a broad audience changed the national conversation in a positive direction as more people were empowered with levels of knowledge they had been previously unequipped to access.

While in the Western world we’ve had a number of intellectual heavyweights on yoga and tantra such as Georg Feuerstein, Mukunda Stiles and Douglas Brooks (to name a few), we’ve never really had an “Elizabeth Warren of Yoga and Tantra” until Ramesh Bjonnes began writing for elephant journal in 2010.

In the name of full disclosure, I must admit that I’ve been a fan of Ramesh since I began reading his column in elephant journal and I often turned to him for help when seeking to make the authentic more accessible in my own teaching.

In reading Sacred Body, Sacred Spirit, I quickly recognized Ramesh’s ongoing intention to dispel the idea that tantra is a branch from the tree of yoga but rather the reverse that yoga’s roots lie within Tantra itself.   What also stands out clearly is his intention to bring living tantra to a much broader audience.

Within the first pages of the book, he discusses the ideas of Western and Indian yoga scholars who believe that yoga comes solely from the Vedic tradition (brought in either by either Aryan invaders or that the Vedic Aryans were already native to India)—a concept Bjonnes refers to (and rejects) as the “One River Theory.”

Ramesh then offers historical, archeological and genetic evidence to support his own “Two River Theory”—the idea that the history of yoga is actually a blend of the Tantric and Vedic traditions of India.

He continues to weave this idea throughout the book illustrating how the Vedic and Tantric cultures form two worldviews; the former focused on the ritualistic and religious quest for fierce control while the latter is mainly empirical and spiritual and aimed at alchemical transformation.

And despite these seemingly different approaches, he collects and examines broad aspects of yoga and tantra from numerous traditions to show not only how they are related, but as he concludes, that they are essentially the same and perhaps are just seen from a different perspective. This is particularly clear in the chapter Tantra and The Yoga Sutras: If Patanjali had Been A Woman in which he examine’s Nischala Joy Devi’s book The Secret Power of Yoga. In that book, she applies her heart, not just her head, to interpreting the Yoga Sutras with the results sounding more Tantric than Vedic.

For example, Georg Feuerstein’s well-respected translation that “Yoga is the restriction of the fluctuation of consciousness” is held out as an example of the disciplined (and more literal) Vedic approach. Conversely, Nischala Joy Devi’s translation of the same passage reads “Yoga is the uniting of consciousness in the heart”—a more Tantric interpretation of the same original words.

But not to dishonor or dismiss the Vedic interpretation, Bjonnes offers the words of his teacher Anandamutri (who interprets the Sutras much like Feuerstein) that “Patanjali meant that a yogi must suspend his or her mental tendencies (vrittis) in order to find peace and thus, experience the goal of yoga.”

And no book about tantra would be complete without several discussions of the cosmic consciousness of Brahma, composed of Shiva and Shakti. What I particularly appreciate about Ramesh’s approach to discussing Shiva and Shakti is that he does it in a way helps to steer people away from identifying primarily with one or the other (often men to masculine Shiva and women to feminine Shakti) but rather he offers a constant reminder that the two are inseparable because they are one.

In the process, he also offers practical reminders of how to stay aware and connected to the ever-present source, requiring discipline, not indulgence—in both deep practice and deep love while also staying engaged in the world.

In keeping with his intention of offering a book about transforming our ordinary life experiences into sacred ones, he not only discusses broader aspects of yoga and tantra but he also delves into some details on everything from dispelling a myth about when women were allowed to practice yoga, to why Tantric love is not just about sex, to why we chant om at the end of yoga class.  Its only fitting that since some refer to Tantra the “yoga of everything” that this book seems to be about just that: everything, and how it is connected to everything else.

Throughout the book, Ramesh’s discussions can be soaring threads of inspiration but they are also laced with much plain spoken language and often blunt criticism, such as when he refers to the Christian belief in the virgin birth as “irrational hogwash.”

But lest it appear he is picking on any one path or tradition (even science itself), he tries to apply the same rigor to each one being discussed as he turns over many stones the average reader may not have thought to examine. In this sense, the book feels like sitting around the fire with Ramesh on a dark night as he explains each concept and answers questions in a way everyone in the group can understand.

While just under 200 pages, Sacred Body, Sacred Spirit is like a rich mental and spiritual brownie—best enjoyed by taking small bites and allowing them to sink in rather than gulping it down in one sitting.

It seems that today we are blessed with a number of thinkers and teachers on the subjects of yoga and Tantra who seek to fill the role of the bearded sage in the back of the cave, guiding dedicated seekers deeper into the journey of their practice.

I’ve long believed that what we need more of are thinkers and teachers who place themselves at the mouth of the cave of knowledge, seeking to make the authentic more accessible and thus enable more people to have the option to choose the path of Tantra and Yoga.

In Sacred Body, Sacred Spirit, Ramesh Bjonnes fills both of these roles quite well.

Dear Yoga Alliance,

Lately, I’ve been hearing quite a few teachers tell me that they don’t see the YA as relevant to yoga in this country. They don’t see where their registration money is going and they don’t see you visibly advocating for member’s needs. The Leadership Conferences are a great idea but with a $1000+ price tag for registration and lodging alone, they remain out of reach for many of your members.

Recently, a friend of mine who is a well known yoga teacher in southern California, asked her friends whether they thought the Yoga Alliance was still relevant to yoga teachers and students and the feedback was less than encouraging. The few who offered any words of support tended to frame Yoga Alliance membership as a necessary evil  rather than an organization worth embracing. These views reflect much of what I hear from other yoga teachers all over the country, and I believe within their disappointment lies a great opportunity for growth and change which many would support.

My relationship with yoga began much earlier than my relationship with the Yoga Alliance (YA) and I remain a supporter of the YA since I believe you have great potential to serve the needs of your members and help us to further promote yoga to millions of people who have yet to experience it.

In this spirit, I offer the following suggestions that, I believe, can enable you to more fully fulfill the promises made in your mission statement:

“Yoga Alliance® is the national education and support organization for Yoga in the United States. We work in the public interest to ensure that there is a thorough understanding of the benefits of Yoga, that the teachers of Yoga value its history and traditions and that the public can be confident of the quality and consistency of instruction.”

Here are some things I’d deeply appreciate you and your staff look into:

>>Member services. I’ve been a member of several professional associations in my lifetime so its hard not to notice the lack of basic member services to Yoga Alliance members beyond listing as a registered teacher and the rights to use certain YA logos. As the support organization for yoga in the United States, I think you can do better than that. Here are a few suggestions of some member services you could look into providing:

>>Yoga Insurance. Virtually every yoga teacher needs insurance these days in the event of a mishap or student injury. Right now, we all purchase it from a variety of sources but if we could purchase it through YA, the profits could go toward promoting yoga programs instead of going into the coffers of some other entity.

 >>Health Insurance For Yoga Teachers. This is something my teacher, Doug Swenson, has advocated for years. While some yoga teachers are (barely) making a living wage, I know few who actually have health insurance. Most studios are barely staying open and are unable to provide such coverage.With the buying power of the YA membership and the lower insurance risk of this health-conscious population, it seems that YA would be in a good position to bargain for a health care plan its members could afford. I know this is a tough one and health insurance is specific to each state, but even if you could get it started in a few states, it could be a real service to your membership.

>>Other Insurance. While you’re at it, you could probably also negotiate favorable rates on life and auto insurance and funnel any profits from these to fund some of the other programs I’m suggesting here.

>>Advocacy and Educational Standards. In addition, I’d also like to share some suggestions which are directly tied to the YA‘s mission of advocacy and educational standards which could have a significant impact on yoga in this country.

>>Promotion of Yoga in The United States. To many of us, it is not exactly clear how you are promoting yoga to the general public. The Yoga Health Foundation coordinates National Yoga Month each September but other than registering schools and teachers, its hard to identify any way that you are out there promoting yoga to the general public. At the same time, it is not clear to many of us whether you are also advocating for our interests with government entities on issues such as state moves to license teacher training programs and working with Congress and federal health officials to officially recognize the benefits of yoga and include them in the language of draft health care laws and policies.

It would also be encouraging to see the Yoga Alliance doing some of the things other professional associations and public interest groups do such as having its members write articles for placement in national publications, and collaborating with like-minded organizations such as the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT).

While you’re out promoting yoga to the general public, I would deeply appreciate your efforts to work with The Yoga Gives Back foundation to bring yoga to underserved populations across the country. A huge contribution could be the provision of YA scholarships to train teachers from underrepresented populations within the broader yoga community.

>>Educational Standards. It is clear that you have established paper standards which must be met for a yoga school to be registered with the Yoga Alliance and thus allow their graduates to become registered yoga teachers. That said, isn’t it time to take the next step and periodically do some quality control checks on yoga schools?

Otherwise, how do you know they are living up to the ideals laid out in your mission statement?

“…that the teachers of Yoga value its history and traditions and that the public can be confident of the quality and consistency of instruction”

Having teams of YA-empowered personnel out mentoring and engaging yoga schools to ensure quality standards could serve the community in other ways as well; to serve as a means of identifying and sharing best practices in teacher training and studio management but also as a great feedback loop to give YA a finger on the pulse of the American yoga community.

>>Greater Transparency. Finally, I think the YA could receive much more support and grow its membership with greater transparency, to include publishing an annual report so members know where their money went and how the YA staff is working to achieve the goals laid out in its mission statement.

I deeply appreciate your consideration of these ideas, thoughts, and suggestions and stand ready to support you in transforming the Yoga Alliance into an organization that better serves its members, our students, and the general public.

Namaste,

Chris Courtney

(A copy of this letter was forwarded to Yoga Alliance President and CEO Richard Karpel prior to publishing).

Photo credit: Photo Dictionary

Dear Yoga Teacher,

Maybe you don’t remember me. I come to your class sometimes and often lay out my mat in the back left corner of the room where I sometimes struggle to follow along.

I’ve been thinking about just giving up yoga altogether but first, I thought I’d share these thoughts with you in the hopes that you’d listen and consider things from my perspective.

So, here it goes:

Let me know I’m welcome regardless of what I’m wearing, how big my butt is, or anything that makes me different from you or most of the other people attending your class. Too often entering a yoga studio feels like a scene from Mean Girls or The Heathers. I see the way you and some of your “best” students look at me and it doesn’t feel great. So, you can imagine how hard it is for me to hear you talk about peace, love and acceptance and see it as anything resembling authentic. Seriously, if you don’t love people (and I mean all people), why are you teaching yoga in the first place?

Be on time and ready to guide me. I left work a bit early, dealt with a lot of traffic, and dressed so fast I’m probably wearing something inside out…all just to be on time for your class. So, when you walk in five minutes late, futz around for a bit, and then look like you’re just winging it through the class, I feel disrespected (and that I need to find a new teacher or studio).

Greet me and ask me (quietly). How I’m feeling, if I have any injuries, or if I’m pregnant (or just had a baby). I may feel weird offering up this info in front of everyone and probably don’t know how to modify the practice to keep me safe. I’m assuming that you, my teacher have been trained in this (or at least have done a lot of self study on it).

Get off your mat and teach me. If you’re just on your mat practicing with me and calling out what pose to do next, I may as well stay at home and practice with a DVD (and save my money). I need to know you are watching me, keeping me safe, and taking in nonverbal feedback from the class.

Adjust me (please) but make it meaningful, safe, and supportive of my intentions. If you decide to “fix” me or “sculpt” me, its not really my practice anymore and there is a good chance you’ll hurt me. If you are not trained in hands-on adjustments, please learn them. Until then, please refrain from calling out names from the front of the room with lots of minor verbal adjustments…all that does its confuse me and put me back into my head—something I came to class to get away from.

Understand the difference between challenging me and demoralizing me.  Just because you can do lots of advanced asanas does not mean you can teach them. Show me how to break something down and work toward it, celebrating wherever I am rather than showing it off quickly then moving on to something else.  I need to know that you subscribe to David Swenson’s thought that “just because you can do advanced asanas does not mean you are an advanced human being.”

When in doubt, let the practice teach itself. If every time we move into a pose you feel it necessary to say everything you know about it, you’ll quickly put me on overload and get me right back into my head…again.

The same goes for how much of the spiritual aspect of yoga you decide to share.   Sometimes it feels like I’ve stumbled into a fundamentalist church rather than a yoga studio. Let me know about the mental. spiritual, and emotional aspects of yoga and when I’m ready, I’ll delve deeper into them.  But if you lay it on too thick in the beginning, I’ll feel alienated or that everything my family told me about yoga being a hippie cult must be true.

Leonardo di Vinci said that “half of art is knowing when to stop” and that definitely applies here as well.

When you go to another teacher’s class, I need to know you can be a student  too. Every now and then, I see a yoga teacher in someone else’s class just doing their own thing and showing off, not following along with what is being taught. Not only does this disrupt the energy of another teacher’s class, it makes me lose respect for you as a teacher. It’s no surprise that some of the best teachers are also the most humble.

I don’t expect you to be perfect, just authentic. I’m not looking for a guru, just someone who can guide me along the way and give me a hand up every now and then. Sharing your own imperfections during this journey while giving me the freedom to explore on my own, let’s me know I’m supported and most of all, that I’m not alone.

Namaste,

Your Yoga Student