3 Hard Truths about being a Yoga Teacher that I’ve had to unpack

3 big truth bombs about the Yoga world that I’ve had to unpack since qualifying & teaching Yoga…

1. Size DOES matter.

Do you see many movement teachers of colour who are larger/curvier? We are often sidelined, because we may not fit the ‘aesthetic Western look of Yoga’ or in other words, ‘slim, white, can bend into pretzel’. But here’s the thing…you can still achieve advanced poses in a larger body. And besides that, even if you can do headstands all day, that doesn’t make you a good teacher.

2. The colour of your skin matters.

How many Yoga teachers of colour do you know? Especially South Asian? We are not many, despite being from the ancestral land of Yoga. We are chronically sidelined in many Yoga spaces, and not many want to admit it. If we are to examine why, one reason is because our social beliefs are steeped in white supremacy, the same ideology upon which all our Western societies are built. There are lots of studies you can refer to about this if you want to know more.

Solution? I believe it is the ethical duty of studios to honour the roots of what they teach and make active efforts to support underrepresented teachers who can offer added value through their lived Yogic experiences.

3. You can be a good Yoga teacher AND an idiot.

I think we can all agree on this one! Just because you are more ‘spiritual’ or ‘new age’ doesn’t mean you’re an authority on morality🤷🏽‍♀️ There are plenty of Yoga teachers out there who are good at what they do, but outside of their classes, are aggressively competitive or territorial with other teachers in their area. Then there are others who are extremely performative or superficial in their practice and look down upon all other aspects of Yoga with words like ‘woo woo’ to describe the Eastern theory behind Yoga.

Whether it’s about having diverse sizes, genders, or colours in a class, a lot of Yoga teachers don’t realise how judgmental they come across or how excluded they make some of their students feel. Yoga is about unity, compassion and self-understanding. Doing our best to remember that will make us better humans and teachers of this beautiful spiritual science.