This one is a doozy, and there is a lot to unpack, but I’ll just say it how it is. I am a white woman in America teaching a somewhat secular version of an Eastern spiritual practice. Yoga is, at its roots, a Hindu and Buddhist practice. There are many practitioners who feel strongly that people of my demographic should not be teaching yoga at all; that yoga has been Westernized beyond recognition. In many ways, I agree with them. The colonization and capitalization of yoga have turned it into a fitness craze, and you see things like yoga for beach bodies, yoga for abs, yoga with goats, and yoga with alcohol. Tiktok and Instagram are loaded with images of young, skinny, white bodies in skimpy outfits contorting themselves into pretzels and calling it yoga for aesthetic points.
Many teachers don’t even mention the fact that yoga actually has eight parts (called limbs) to it, and only one of those eight limbs is the actual physical practice, the asanas. If you are not teaching yoga as a whole, including all eight limbs, you are essentially teaching people how to stretch. As a practicing Buddhist, yoga touches all aspects of my life, from how I care for my physical body to how I interact with others and how I see and think about the world. Of course, I cannot expect that all of my students will be Buddhist!
Where the struggle comes in for me is trying to find the balance between honoring the roots of yoga while teaching it to students who come from different backgrounds and are in the class for a variety of reasons. I live in a tiny rural town in New Hampshire, and nearly 100% of my students are Caucasian women between the ages of 25 ad 60 who come from a Christian home (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, it's just the facts!). For many of my students, the Sanskrit terms for the asanas are confusing and foreign, mudras are unfamiliar, and they’ve never heard of the Yamas or Niyamas, never mind complicated concepts such as Dharma or Dukkha. I need to take it slowly and make sure my classes are accessible and comfortable for everyone, while gently introducing them to other aspects of yoga aside from Downward Facing Dog. I want to be respectful of yoga tradition while making sure my teaching does not conflict with the beliefs of those taking my classes or make my classes inaccessible.
One way I do this is by slowly introducing Sanskrit terms and using them with their coinciding English names. Many of you may notice that at the end of class I say both “Savasana'' and “Corpse Pose” or that instead of “palms together” or “prayer hands” we have gradually learned the name for Anjali Mudra. Whenever I am referring to “poses'' I also say “asanas.” My long-time students might have noticed the recent addition of “Balasana'' for Child’s Pose. I plan to continue to do this gradual shift in the language.
I have also adopted a wonderful practice for my Saturday Restorative class where we learn about one limb, deity, or tradition every week, creating an anchor for our practice that day. In other ways, I bring the limbs of yoga into our practice through meditation, where we might focus (dharana), breathe (pranayama) or turn inward (pratyahara). My Thursday night class focuses on the Chakras, an Eastern philosophy on the body’s energy centers and how to identify blockages or misalignment and address them through asana, meditation, and mantra (affirmations). My Tuesday night Elemental classes pull ideas from Ayurveda and the doshas, without saying as much.
I do my best to avoid cultural appropriation in the studio. I only play music that I have purchased, especially if they are indigenous tracks, to make sure the artists get compensated for their art. I buy incense that is handmade in India and I do not order it through Amazon (I saw “White Sage” being sold at BAM the other day; don’t even get me started!). I am conscious of my social media use, and make an effort to follow and learn from yoga teachers of all colors and sizes, especially those who are Hindu or Buddhist. Some of you may have noticed my recent omission of the widely-expected “namaste” at the end of class. This change I made as a reaction to new learning about the word and how it is to be used (although I of course will respond when my students say it to me).
I am still learning, even after practicing yoga for 20 or more years. Social consciousness and access to new information expands every day, and I make every effort to evolve as I learn. I do truly believe that yoga is for all humans; that everyone can benefit from it in some way, even if that way is simply becoming more flexible or easing anxiety. Yogis who come to class to find camaraderie, to rest, to get stronger, to feel more connected to their bodies; no matter what your “why” is, the studio welcomes all, even those who prefer to never utter a single Sanskrit term. I believe that yoga is a gift that all people should learn from and enjoy.
My job as your teacher is to provide you with whatever level of yoga you are seeking and then help you to go even deeper in a variety of ways. You might learn some new affirmations, many different ways to meditate, the Sanskrit terms for your favorite poses, the stories behind some common deities, or how to modify and use props in your physical practice. But I will promise you that you will absolutely, never, ever, EVER be able to take a goat yoga, a wine yoga, or an “abs” yoga class at Common!
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