Your Yoga Teacher Is Not a Fitness Instructor: Resist the Commodification of Yoga
Your yoga teacher is not a fitness instructor.
If you call yourself a yogi because you can do a handstand, that makes you a gymnast, maybe a contortionist. It does not make you a yogi.
I'm not saying this because I'm better than you. I've got my own work to do (a lot of it). I’m saying this because when you scroll on Instagram or casually hear about yoga in the media, this is how yoga is portrayed.
There is so much cultural appropriation that occurs in yoga we don't even recognize it for what it is when it is staring at us in the face.
It seems the conversation just stops after someone acknowledges the practice of yoga has always changed. Or that the trends are fun and harmless and maybe that person who enjoys kettlebell yoga will one day come round to the spiritual path of yoga.
I don't think so. And I don't think anyone is holding a gun to someone's head that if they don't create "wine and chocolate yoga" that they won't make any money teaching yoga.
There is a tendency in the western yoga and wellness space to fall into the trap of marketing trends. Spiritual concepts just learned will be combined with concepts from other ancient wisdom traditions for the sake of creating profit. This “unique” offering likely contains a superficial understanding of spiritual ideas. It does not add anything to our spiritual development because the offering was created solely for profit.
There is room for creation but so much of what I see being created is simply colonial theft that demonstrates a complete lack of respect for the roots of yoga, where the priorities of capitalism supersede the spiritual authority of the path of yoga.
There are many paths of yoga. Desikachar makes a powerful point in The Heart Of Yoga and that is to teach a person what they can accept at the time, not what we think is right for them.
The spiritual dimension may mean nothing to you at this point in time and you may practice your own religion.
But as teachers and as students, we need to respect the ancestral practice of yoga.
No matter how much our capitalist society wants us to be ok with commodifying yoga.
No matter how much colonial drivel tries to distort us from the roots of yoga.
Decolonizing Yoga and Wellness Reflection Questions:
💌 what is your definition of yoga? where does it come from?
💌 if your definition contains polarity, where is the tension and conflict coming from?
💌 is your yoga practice feeding your ego? how so?
💌 is your yoga practice cultivating compassion for yourself and others? how so?
Written By: Irene Lo