Starting with its grab-your-attention title, the highly personal testimony published recently by The Guardian unfortunately only serves to confirm many of the fears and misconceptions that some have about Yoga.
Whilst we can all agree that it is a powerful practice with the ability to bring about deep transformation and that in the wrong hands, it can therefore potentially be physically, mentally and psychologically harmful, the picture painted by the author, based on her own experience, will be unrecognisable to many experienced students and teachers. Of course, like her, some students will be vulnerable for all sorts of reasons, coming to Yoga looking for ‘solutions’ and perhaps encountering teachers who abuse their trust. Again, just like her, those same students might (often far too quickly) themselves become teachers, having rushed into a short course that leaves them ill-equipped to cope with the demands of teaching such a powerful practice and feeling as if they have to do more and more training just in order to feel ‘good enough’. In those circumstances – vulnerability combined with unrealistic expectations (‘Yoga is the answer to all my problems’), lack of experience and inadequate training – it is hardly surprising that stress, burn-out, exploitation and disillusion lie just around the corner.
The problem though, comes not from Yoga but from what fallible human beings do with it, and regulation by some over-arching body is not necessarily the answer (and no, Yoga Alliance are not ‘the closest organisation to an official governing body in yoga’). What is, in fact, needed above all is the promotion of comprehensive training courses with serious recruitment criteria, covering all aspects of Yoga (not just asana) delivered by experienced teachers who have themselves reflected on and embedded into their lives the deep teachings of Yoga. In addition and importantly, we need to educate all Yoga students so that they take responsibility for their practice and class experience and feel empowered to call out abuses. They need to know that, should they encounter abuse of power, manipulation, extreme competitiveness, sexual predators, money and commercial gain being put before standards and ethics, or anything else that clearly contradicts basic Yoga principles, that is quite simply not Yoga. They do not have to put up with that behaviour, and in denouncing it, they will be doing the greatest of services to Yoga. Finally, if any of those students should ever feel they want to teach Yoga, they should think again if they still believe Yoga is simply postures, the harder the better, or would consider lying on their application form or are under the illusion that Yoga will ‘save’ them and give them the perfect life. In those circumstances, not embarking on a teacher training course would also be the greatest of services to Yoga.
So, whilst recognising that the potential for abuse exists, just as it does elsewhere, let’s acknowledge that for millions of Yoga practitioners, that is emphatically not their experience and focus on combatting it through training, education and empowerment. That positive approach, and not regulation by goodness knows who or what, can help eliminate the problems this article focuses on so depressingly and relentlessly, and it’s the approach taken by independent organisations such as Yoga Teachers Together that is working to foreground respect for Yoga principles in teaching, training and all our interactions with each other.
