Roots Torn, Truth Forgotten
Remembering the Soul of Yoga
A meditation on values, roots, and remembering.
Yoga was never meant to be easy. Not a trend. Not a sale. Not a neatly packaged hour squeezed between meetings.
Yoga has always been a path of return - to essence, to Earth, to the quiet flame of inner knowing.
But as the world shifted, so too did the ways we practise and share it. This is a gentle inquiry - not a judgement - into how our modern systems shape our sacred spaces. And how we, as a community, might remember what lies beneath it all.
🧘🏻♀️From Practice to Product?
Yoga once unfolded slowly. In quiet halls, with simple mats. We gathered not for the burn, but for the stillness. Not for aesthetic, but for awareness.
Classes moved like seasons - 90 minutes long, with time to arrive, breathe, reflect. Teachings included not just poses, but pranayama, myth, philosophy, mantra, and silence.
Now, yoga comes in countless forms: Rocket, Broga, Acro, Power, Beer. 10-minute hits for the algorithm. Retreats that feel more like resorts.
The pace quickens. The scroll deepens. And something ancient risks being forgotten - not gone, but buried beneath the noise.
🎓Training for Depth or Branding?
There was a time when to teach yoga was a sacred vow. Years of practice, mentorship, and spiritual discipline were the threshold.
Now, fast-track trainings offer certifications in weeks. Logos, hashtags, and packages precede lineage or embodied understanding.
Of course, accessibility matters. And yoga should be for everyone. But when depth is traded for speed, and presence for performance - what is being taught? What, truly, are we passing on?
💸The Marketplace of Mindfulness
We live in a world of sales and scarcity. Yoga is not immune.
Studios and teachers offer referral bonuses, flash sales, unlimited bundles. Prices undercut one another in a silent scramble for survival. Even sacred days are co-opted: Black Friday Yoga. Cyber Monday Memberships.
The problem isn’t generosity - it's the why.
Are we inviting access, or playing into a system that values profit over presence? Have we mistaken popularity for purpose?
And still - students click, book, attend. We all participate in the dance of commodification, even as we long to break free.
🌲Rooting in the Yamas
What if we recalibrated? What if our businesses were shaped not by trends, but by Patanjali’s Yamas - the ethical roots of the yogic path?
Ahimsa - non-harming
Satya - truthfulness
Asteya - non-stealing
Aparigraha - non-hoarding
Could our pricing reflect non-violence - to ourselves, our students, our peers? Could we market with truth, not illusion? Set prices that honour experience, rather than steal value through competition? Release the grip of scarcity, and trust in enoughness?
This is not naïveté - it’s radical. It is yoga.
🍄🟫The Mycelium Model
Imagine a yoga economy rooted like a forest.
Each studio a tree. Each teacher a root. Each student a leaf turned toward light. Beneath it all, a mycelial network of shared intention - unseen but essential.
This is not about perfection. It is about practice.
A business rooted in yamas doesn’t reject the world - it nourishes a new one. It swims upstream, slowly, bravely. It becomes a quiet revolution in how we live, share, and sustain.
Tiny shifts. Honest pricing. Mutual care. These small, invisible gestures ripple - butterfly effects in a complex system desperate for meaning.
🔥Reclaiming the Fire
Yoga is not passive. It is not aesthetic. It is practice - fire, courage, commitment, sacrifice.
To walk the yogic path as a teacher, student, or space-holder is to hold a light up against the currents of consumerism.
To choose slowness in a fast world. To remember depth when we are told to perform. To nourish the whole forest, not just our own canopy.
Yoga begins where we live. How we price. How we speak. How we honour each other’s time, labour, lineage.
🕸️Conclusion: Remembering the Invisible
Let our yoga businesses be like woodland roots - interwoven, rich, unseen, alive.
Let us be musk deer - no longer searching for the scent, but remembering it lives within.
Let us walk slowly. Speak honestly. And rebuild this sacred web together - not as brands, but as beings.
✨Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
What does true yoga mean to you in today’s world? How do you balance making a living with practicing and teaching authentically? How do you navigate yoga and capitalism in your practice or business? What does ethical, rooted yoga look like in today’s world?
📩 Message us to continue the conversation
❤️ Reblog to share these thoughts
🪷 Tag someone walking the path with heart
when you want to reengage with an activity, make sure you actually show up to practice instead of purchasing a new look, equipment, course, etc. to motivate yourself to do it in the future. Just show up in the space and let the result be the result for the day. Notice how you feel and what inspire you to practice internally.
escaping that hamser wheel of buying is a lot more satisfying and valuable and precious than ownership of things (showing up is creating, showing up is exploring, showing up is being present, showing up is honoring the process, showing up is building dicipline, showing up is good enough) - and the wonders that can be awoken just with the use of your own body and mind(!)
The first of the eight limbs of yoga is the yamas. The yamas are the physical restraints or ethical guidelines for embarking upon the yogic path.
I want to make something clear. The yamas (really, all 8 limbs for that matter) are to be taken as guiding principles. The truth is, it is very difficult (if not downright impossible!) to uphold these yamas constantly. At best they serve as ideals to aspire toward and to guide our actions. We may have periods of our life in which we are better able to adhere to these principals than others. But as long as we sincerely try our best to live up to these ideals, we are on the yogic path.
So, here we go! The 5 yamas are:
1. Ahimasa, (AH-him-saw) or non-violence/non harming. This applies to other humans and other living creatures, including animals. However, ahimsa goes beyond non-harming of other creatures and extends to the self as well. So, part of practicing ahimsa is to be kind and compassionate toward oneself and others. Practicing ahimsa helps us become more aware of the peaceful qualities of all beings, and it encourages us to honor that peace above anything else.
2.Satya, (sut-TEA-yah) or truthfulness. According to satya, we view and describe the world based on how we want to see it, instead of how it actually is. This may mean that we have to admit when we’re distorting reality to avoid confronting a painful truth. In practice satya may involve speaking an uncomfortable truth with compassion rather than falsely telling others what they want to hear to avoid hurting their feelings.
3.Asteya ( US-tay-yuh) or non-stealing. This includes not only objects, but also time, resources, information, and caring that others provide. In practice, asteya may look life being aware of when someone is generously giving their time, and being mindful not to take advantage of their generosity. It may also involve us “paying it forward” by donating our time and resources to others without expecting anything in return.
4. Brahmacharya (bra-ma-char-E-uh) , or moderation of the senses or appropriate use of vital energy. Brahmacharya involves looking inward for balance, rather than depending on the outer world to satisfy our cravings. That way, we use our energy more wisely for the activities that sustain our inner peace. For example, maybe you have an unwinding ritual at the end of a particularly long hard day-long hot shower & a margarita (I have never done that! *wink...) While it may seem totally innocuous, you might become dependent on this activity for peace and normalcy, such that when you run out of hot water,you feel annoyed for the rest of the night. Consider finding another way to recharge that involves turning inward and withdrawing from the senses- perhaps by dedicating some of that time to a meditation practice.
5. Aparigraha, (a-par-E-graw-haw), non-greed/non-possessiveness. Aprigraha means coveting that which isn’t ours. This coveting nature is rooted in jealousy. Jealousy is fatal to our minds. In today’s social media society, we are consistently seeing everyone’s “highlights reel” not the real and everyday things. We see the make up on, angled, perfected, & filtered photos. We see this constantly, from social media to magazines, to tv commercials to billboards, and it’s so easy to compare ourselves. (Even in yoga class!). Aparigraha, therefore, encourages us to remain non-attached to the external world and remain in the present moment within our sacred mind space.
See if you can integrate all 5 of the yamas this week into your daily life and thoughts!
Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. ~Yoda
Anatomically, I am hyper mobile. For a time, I coveted flexibility, eventually moving to nonattachment, aparigraha- so I thought. Thus I never imagined how much my injured body would tighten post car accident.
Wednesday in class, I grew pissed off as pose after pose forced me to confront my loss of mobility on my left side. Closing my eyes, I asked why I care about how deeply I go into a posture. Physical depth is not the intention of Yoga. I softened, smiled.
This physical vessel is our home. When it shifts, we emotionally adjust. At times, anger is okay, so long as it is not consuming or constant.
As I always remind my students- Yoga is a practice, mostly of the mind. We meet ourselves where we are, sit with what arises, and choose, hopefully, a compassionate response.
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I’m having a really hard time letting go today. And what a perfect time to practice non-attachment. Letting go of my house, my car, my sacred space, my privacy, my bed, my trees, my flowers, my plants. My bathtub, my toilet, my silly books and oils and stones. My business, my beads, my cell phone service, my mind!! But the weather is beautiful. And I have a roof over my head. And hot water and a food and a bed. These are the things that matter. Friends and family that will give me rides... Nothing else really matters. It’s all about gratitude. And I’m so damn grateful for what i do have at this point. Never forget about the good you have. No matter what, it outweighs what think you don’t have. Always. ❤️ #tbt #aparigraha #nonattachment (at Panama City, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpFLr08Bwm-/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=saroi9i9v2ou
Most of our possessions are things that have value only to us: souvenirs from memorable trips, beloved books we’ve read over and over, letters we received from people important to us, and photographs of unforgettable moments. The memories of the trouble we went through to obtain a certain object, the price we paid to make it our own, or the stories that surround it will raise its value to us. But no matter how expensive or how wonderful an item may be to us, it won’t have that same value to someone else. It will simply be another item. This thought crossed my mind when I was thinking about what would happen if I passed away, or something serious happened to me suddenly. All my possessions would become a burden to my loved ones. Yet because I had minimized most of my belongings, I realized I had also minimized the trouble I would cause others in such circumstances. It’s a sad thing to think about, but for some reason I felt a sense of freedom. Without such a morose concern hanging over me, I felt stronger and free to tackle the next stage of my life.
Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki, rendered into english by Eriko Sugita
