Since the emergence of Instagram a decade ago, and even years before then, I’ve been a champion of yoga that goes beyond just the physical practice.

I’ve been a cheerleader for yoga classes that:

• Stop long enough to tell a story
• Impart yoga philosophy
• Celebrate lineage
• Speak the names of the poses and concepts in Sanskrit as well as English
• Explore anatomy and posture in more depth

When yoga teachers ask me how they can improve their classes, I’ve told them to remember their responsibility to tell yoga’s story and go deep, not just deliver a choreographed sequence and “inhale-exhale, 3, 2, 1…”

Indeed, I see it as our responsibility as yoga teachers to teach students about how yoga is a way of living, it’s not merely an activity you check off your habit tracker list.

Student expectations of what yoga is become defined by what they’re receiving in class.

In other words, yoga teachers and yoga studios determine yoga culture.

Regrettably, the majority of yoga culture today consists of social media accounts depicting yoga as a physical feat or an escape from reality. More and more yoga studios are embracing cookie cutter classes that follow a fairly set sequence devoid of philosophy, Sanskrit, hands-on assists, or story telling. With so little teachings rooted in tradition, students are robbed of the chance to have a practice that brings greater meaning into their lives, supports them in times of crisis, or to be students of history, philosophy, anatomy and more!

It’s also noteworthy that yoga social media doesn’t exactly build community, and neither do yoga classes that lack more profound teachings in general. After the pandemic, we all could use a little togetherness.

If we want a yoga that brings people together, enriches and transforms lives, honors lineage, lifts people up, helps people feel like they belong, and changes the world, it’s up to you, dear teacher, to bring it.

Bring in history. Bring in lineage. Bring in stories and philosophy. Bring in meditation and pranayama. Bring in Sanskrit. Bring in skillful touch.

Bring it despite the current norms and student expectations.
Bring it despite the current culture.
Be the outlier.
Your people will find you.

Yoga on,
Amy

Photo by DJ Pierce, Hanuman Festival