The Business of...

Every industry has it's drawbacks and yoga ("the Yoga Industry") is no exception. Business is business. It's about money and sales and numbers and operations.

All of this seems so antithetical to Yoga which is about the union of mind, body, and soul- not the union of the aforementioned legs of business.

Since I started working as a Yoga Advisor, I've had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I like and need to make money to sustain myself and I am able to practice as much as I want for free. On the other hand, sales is stressful and not always the most emotionally supportive gig. I work nine hour days and twelve hour days the last four days of the month. I am off of work any two random days of the week. Once a month, I get two days off consecutively.


I suppose I am hoping that I will pick up my numbers so significantly that I end up feeling the support I haven't felt yet. This thought reminds me of an instructor here named Marco. Marco is amazing and one of the most widely followed instructors in New York City. The asanas we practice in his Vinyasa and Slow Flow classes are not as advanced as his philosophies on life.


One thing he says quite often is not to hold onto hope "because on the other side of the coin is fear." And fear blocks intelligence. I'm not quite sure I believe this, but I can see his point.


When we hope something will happen (like we hope there is a heaven after death) it is because we are scared there is nothing and this causes us to fear so instead of being fearful, we use hope as a tool to "get by."


He also refers to savasana (the corpse pose) as a way for us to "rehearse our death."


Who said yoga is all about rainbows, bunnies, and gumdrops?


I am beginning to learn that our yoga practice reflects everything we feel in life. If we are frustrated with ourselves off the mat, we see that emotion on the mat. In tree pose we may find ourselves wobbling more and cannot focus on this delicate balance. It's all very metaphorical.


If we are not at peace in our minds, we find that we cannot access the divine part of us, our spirit. We may not be able to turn inwards and leave the outside world.


In yoga, we must learn to be able to access the divine spirit inside of us, we must learn to create peace and live peacefully.


My favorite yoga sutra is "By cultivating attitudes of friendliness towards the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind stuff retains its undisturbed calmness."

I can only NOT hope that the business of yoga gets easier!?!