I started Some Yoga because I can see that yoga can benefit every single one of us in some way. Yet somehow the people practicing yoga all look the same. It’s a club, with a lot of myths and misconceptions as the gatekeepers. No one inside the club actually wants to keep it exclusive (no-one I’ve met so far anyway). We’re all really keen for accessible yoga, body-positive yoga, yoga for kids, yoga for the elderly. Yet it strikes me that in our attempts to open up yoga, picking on particular groups and focusing on them, we’re not effectively making yoga truly accessible. I am not knocking these efforts, I think they do wonderful things for opening up yoga. However, there is something about saying ‘yoga for the elderly’ that suggests yoga must be changed or adapted in order to be suitable for those over a certain age. It suggests that yoga is not typically open to those people, and that their only way into the yoga world is through a specialised class.

I think when we put everyone into these boxes, we’re undermining the very important message we’re trying to get across, that yoga is in fact for everybody. It can help everybody. It is available to every body. I like to see yoga as a broad church. It is a practice that dates back at least 4,000 years and over that time it has constantly evolved, been added to, been altered, and brought into the 21st century. I think that makes it a bit like a language. The only language that no longer changes is one that no-one living uses anymore. The reason latin can have strict grammatical rules without the chaos of exceptions, is because it is a dead language. If yoga had a rigid structure, set rules and no flexibility, that to me would be a sign that it is dead, archaic, at risk of being lost to history.

As a result I find arguments about what is a more ‘authentic’ or more ‘traditional’ yoga practice frustrating. It’s interesting and important from a cultural and historic perspective to understand where the practice is from, and how it has changed over time (and how it has been white-washed many times over the centuries). However the very power of yoga today as I see it is it’s diversity, of philosophies and ideas, and also of practices and teaching styles.

That being said, the way we have ‘evolved’ yoga in the wealthy western 21st century world has some big problems. We’ve (mostly by accident) created rules, myths and misleading ideas about what yoga ‘is’ and who it is for, which are elitist, sometimes contradictory, and definitely putting too many people off.

As a yoga teacher who is white, female, slim, used to be a dancer, hypermobile (therefore flexible), under 30, and middle class I’m pretty much the most stereotypical western yogi you could imagine. I think the only points I’m missing in #instayogi bingo is that I’m not vegan and I have no tattoos. I am incredibly conscious that I represent a lot of the things that seem elitist or intimidating about the yoga world, that I know are putting a lot of people off giving it a try. So my mission is to break down the walls around yoga, to try and explain as simply as I can how yoga can help everyone, without any modifications or deviations from the core principles of the practice. There are so many types of yoga practice that go well beyond the ashtanga vinyasa class preferred by fit and flexible 20 somethings, that I know everyone can find a style of yoga that suits their needs and preferences.

To help me illustrate (literally) the myths and misconceptions surrounding yoga, I enlisted the help of my very talented friend Becky Luffman (Instagram: @beckyjluffman).

Yoga Doesn’t Care How Flexible You Are

There’s so much to say on this topic that I’ve written a whole other blog post about it. The short version is, that in western culture, we equate yoga with a kind of circus-level of flexibility that is just so far from the reality of most people’s yoga practice. I have lost count of how many people have said to me “I could never do yoga I’m not flexible enough”. Firstly flexibility is not static, it changes constantly throughout our lives and within our bodies. Secondly, there is absolutely no requirement to be flexible to do yoga, none at all. So if this is something that’s putting you off giving yoga a try, please think again and give it a second chance. If you had a bad experience in a yoga class that seemed overly obsessed with flexibility, please just try a different teacher/studio/style of yoga.

Yoga Doesn’t Care How Strong You Are

This is very similar to the flexibility point, except it’s somehow more acceptable to brag about strength and post endless pictures of headstand on instagram than it is to post about splits. In many ways I think strength is the new flexibility in the yoga world. Don’t get me wrong both strength and flexibility are brilliant for us, they are great things to work on, and if you practice yoga you are likely to become both stronger and more flexible. BUT it is not a prerequisite that you have a certain amount of strength before you start a yoga practice. In fact it’s not even a requirement that you achieve a handstand to be a good yogi, ever. As with flexibility, so with strength, if this has been intimidating you, please give it a try. You may also surprise yourself with the strength you already have!

Yoga Doesn’t Care How Much Time You Have

Again, this is a meaty enough topic for its own blog post. However the most important thing we need to keep in mind, is that time is a privilege. The time to go to a yoga class, a workshop, or perhaps a retreat, is a privilege. It’s true that the more time you can give to a yoga practice the more benefits you will feel. However, if you can give your practice 5 minutes per day, that’s going to be so much better than nothing. However much time you have for yoga, that’s enough.

Yoga Doesn’t Care How Long It’s Been

Yoga is good for us. We all know this, and unfortunately that means it comes with a healthy dose of guilt. I don’t think it’s possible to separate things that are good for us, from the guilt we feel when we’re not doing them. So all I can really say to any lapsed yogis out there, is we’ve all been there, it doesn’t make you any less of a yogi (or a person), your value does not derive from the amount of time you spend doing yoga, and yoga is always here for you, whenever you’re ready. Also see point above re: time, if 5 minutes is all you have, 5 minutes is great.

Yoga Doesn’t Care What You Wear

I have to be careful here, I love leggings. I love Sweaty Betty, and Lululemon and Nike and all the problematic brands that we’re not ‘supposed’ to love or give our money to. However I can recognise there is a deep and knotty problem within the world of yoga wear and ‘athleisure’. For starters leggings are about the least flattering item of clothing you can put on your body. If you have hangups around how you look, the thought of having to put on a pair of leggings to do some yoga is horrifying, perhaps even traumatising. Yet instagram seems to tell us that this is the yogi uniform, conveniently through endless pictures of tanned, skinny and bendy 20 somethings who don’t look like they’d know cellulite if it slapped them in the face. (There’s a funny image!). The reality is that the only thing that matters about what you wear to do yoga in, is that it is comfortable. You need to be able to move freely and easily, you don’t want your clothing to be the reason why you can’t access a particular pose or sequence. Really pyjamas are excellent for yoga, and luckily right now we’re all doing yoga online from the comfort of our own homes, so anything goes really!

P.s. if you come to one of my yoga classes in a dinosaur costume I will love you forever!

Yoga Doesn’t Care Who’s the Best

I don’t even know where to start with this one, it runs deep. Even the yogis who feel they are above the competitiveness because they don’t strive for the most impressive poses can be guilty of a kind of holier-than-thou more vegan, more spiritual, more zen, more enlightened than you attitude. This drives me mad. We are all human. We are all flawed. We are all doing our f***ing best. If you find yourself in class feeling less-than, because someone else can achieve a headstand and you’re not there yet, or if instagram is getting you down because everyone seems to be living a purer, more holy, more zen life than you. Remember that we all have our shit, we’re all working with challenges, and life is not a competition. Yoga is there for us, it can make our complicated and messy lives infinitely better, but there are no prizes for being ‘the best’ and there are no punishments for so-called ‘failure’ after all. In yoga everyone gets a participation medal.

Yoga Doesn’t Judge, You Can Do Some Yoga