This course challenged me. I was forced to admit how very little I knew about the history of yoga or India for that matter.
Initially, the discussion of cultural appropriation made me feel like I needed to defend myself and the reasons I practice and teach yoga. Like most people I know who come to the practice, I began at a crossroad and I was drawn to the seemingly complete practice of mind, body, spirit that was being offered to me.

This course has been eye opening in so many ways.
I have appreciated the safe space to hold the difficult conversations, particularly about cultural appropriation, but it doesn’t make it any more comfortable or easy. I realized that, at almost every level, I have been part of the machine that further removes “yoga” from it’s people and it’s ties to culture and sacred ritual.
My first instinct has been to be still and be quiet for fear of saying the wrong thing or moving in the wrong directions. For those reasons, it is taking me a while to organize my thoughts and formulate a response to the essay question because I am still in flux.

I have contemplated how I might respond to questions on cultural appropriation quite a bit. Imagining if someone were to ask me what cultural appropriation looked like in yoga today I would refer them to the use of symbols, language, and iconography in ways that are misrepresentative, shallow, and disrespectful to their origin and how this misuse continues to erase and separate these things from their original spiritual and cultural context.
I would share as an example of how easy it is to unintentionally fall into a pattern of appropriation, by telling them about the Buddha planter I bought from a local home goods store. Ignorantly, I placed the planter in the bathroom at our yoga studio without any regard of how someone who was of the Buddhist faith or culture may feel about this obvious sign of disrespect of their spiritual icon.
To the conversation I would add that it is my very voice and limited point of view that has the potential to further silence and remove that of non-western voices which continues to contribute to the imbalance of perspectives that moves yoga further away from its culture.

To move forward in a way of respect for the culture of yoga all of us as teachers will need to rely on the intentions behind the offerings we share. That reflection alone will lend to the understanding of appropriateness.
A teacher’s purpose, history, culture, and experience could all be taken into account.
The majority of my teaching has been rooted in the physical but I have found that I am even more measured and thoughtful about what I am sharing. As a teacher, asking myself “Will that Sanskrit word or philosophical idea enhance the students experience and do I truly know the meaning of what I am sharing?;” Is there a way to create that same experience without borrowing/stealing from a culture I do not fully understand or have knowledge of?”; “What is it that I am teaching, who am I teaching, what’s important to them, and why?”.

For me, the draw of yoga was it’s succinctness and completeness as a living discipline. As someone who separated from their own religious upbringing, I found the structure of (now what I know to be) a modern and westernized yoga practice, to be a comforting way to explore spirituality and self-discovery without the dogma and separation that I had experienced in Christianity.
Without this course, I may never have questioned what I was practicing or teaching and that in some ways, I traded one religion for another.
I spent the months since this course began, grieving and mourning what I thought I knew to be true and processing the guilt and shame of being part of an issue that has continued to create separation rather than connection.
I am still realizing how exploring those “truths” is leading to greater depth and respect for a practice that has withstood the iterations and evolutions of time and what my role is moving forward.
To be continued…

Hey Tracie,
I experience the muscle atrophy you are talking about. I am not sure of your clients severity but when I first started investigating mine, my ql was unbearable during myo release…In my experience really paying attention to the left side glute strengthening (low fibers) is a great start. The more I work with it, the more I pick up on what is and is not firing. You might check her left side hip external rotators…Mine are extremely tight. Stretching them hasn’t seemed to work so I have shifted my experiment to strengthening the left side adductors to help assist in keeping my left leg in some sort of balance.
Really I would see if you can at least get her to do the glute work on the left leg every day. it is pretty empowering and then she might start to feel some relief and want to do more.

Hey Rachel!
I teach at a studio where the majority student is older, although the gap of the majority is dwindling a little…I just wanted to say that I introduced the stick in my class on Friday and told them all that due to our limited number of sticks, I may or may not do it again in Saturday morning class. They were all arriving early so they would have a stick on Saturday and counting as people came in to assure we would have enough. I think you are right. People are just as curious as we are to learn the ins and outs of their body’s and to get an idea of what might be causing that nagging pain they have…I even had a woman suggest I offer 15 minute private postural assessments with suggestions on things to help them work on their posture.

Tiffany, I know you have some videos on yogaglo that address asymmetries in the pelvis. I would love it if you could address how someone with a more severe degree of asymmetries would approach ways to strength unilaterally. I know this is a broad subject and definitely to be taken on an individual basis but I would greatly appreciate some instructional videos on how to balance out strength. For example, when working with rotation in the hips would you strengthen the rotators on the opposite side? <—Just somewhere to start. Thank you for the consideration! See you in August!
Rachel Workman