Why Yoga is Not a Fitness Class

I'm seeing a million versions of yoga lately, so thought I would take a moment to put it in perspective, especially since I've been meeting so many people brand new to yoga. Yay! Beginners are among my favorite groups of students to work with!

The Western World tries to make yoga a physical practice and fitness routine. People all over, in commercial and private businesses, try to capitalize on this and incorporate it into their "fitness" offerings as a revenue generator. It's treated like a new trend and business brand, yet its Eastern lineage dates back centuries ago. The more yoga is commercialized the less authentic it is. Ignorance about creating sacred, well-preserved yoga space for students gets ignored. Instructors bypass meditation and Savasana which are key elements to any authentic yoga practice. Students are zipped in and out for an hour or more in this "commercial yoga" format. And then there is frequent misuse of the word "Namaste" because many people don't know what it actually means.

In reality, yoga is not about how long a teacher or a student can hold a headstand or the latest craze of shoulder stands on paddleboards. It's not about which yoga teacher looks best in a pose or in a bikini on the beach or standing on a boulder by an ocean. Yoga is actually intended to be a selfless practice. As teachers, our job is not to showcase our poses and flaunt fit bodies on every networking platform available. As teachers our job is to guide our students in a safe environment (called a yoga studio or some sort of sacred space) and allow them to deepen their physical practice FIRST through mindful self-discovery. Through all of the social networks I am on and events I teach at or attend, I rarely post pictures or distribute photos of myself in numerous yoga poses I can typically do (but perhaps my students can't) for this very reason. It's not about me. When pursued in business, yoga teaching is a profession that should be much more humble than it is often portrayed. One of the most admirable yogis I've trained under actually teaches in loose fitting jeans and rarely models poses while teaching a class. He packs the room everywhere he teaches. That's just his own unique teaching trademark, but when you take a class with this guy there is no doubt the class is about YOU and not about HIM.

There are so many commercialized versions of yoga today. One example, "Fly Yoga" is comparable to a circus-type of airborne yoga class. It is a whole lot of fun, but not authentic, traditional yoga. How about all the different versions of "Hot Yoga" in improperly heated rooms, many with no humidity? (A key element in a properly heated hot yoga room is humidity.) Without a properly heated and humidified room students experience an incredibly sweaty practice in a room so dry their nose bleeds after. I've seen this. I've experienced it. This is what happens when we commercialize yoga to make a few bucks instead of maintaining an authentic, humble practice as business owners and yoga teachers. I've tried all of the aforementioned fitness styles of yoga and many are a whole lot of "fitness fun," but they aren't at all representative of what a traditional yoga practice truly is.

Yoga is an introspective practice. Digging into your head and figuring out how to find balance in a world that often seems more full of anger, unhealthy competition, jealousy, and ill-will among people whether in our business or personal lives. This self-serving virus exists everywhere. Many people find yoga because they need a reprieve from all of this. An authentic yoga experience actually creates an escape from the outside world and the yoga studio and yoga mat are like a safe haven and door to one hour of peace in the day. Yoga is about peeling the layers of humanity, humility and innocence that exists (or has existed) in all of us. We are all born innocent until someone tries to taint that and sometimes that person is our self. There's nothing more innocent and humbling than gathering together for a mindful yoga practice and experiencing physical postures (asanas) with a bunch of strangers barefoot on a yoga mat. That's experiencing humility in the moment-- much closer to what yoga is actually about.

That's my reality check on what yoga really is. By the way, "Namaste" is an expression of reverence toward another and in simple terms means "I bow to you".

Namaste, Friends.

For more information on yoga classes at meetings, events conferences or our Lake in the Hills, Illinois yoga studio, visit: www.justpureyoga.com