Do I Have To Teach Philosophy in a Yoga Asana class?

If you’re like me, you were trained to believe that you’re not teaching real yoga unless you’re instructing alignment based asana AND yoga philosophy in a 60 minute class. This has always felt untenable to me (though I tried).

Back when I use to put way too much weight into what other teachers and studio owners thought - I was told I wasn’t teaching real yoga unless I was also teaching the other seven limbs of yoga philosophy in my asana class. This was a frustrating and confusing time, because these calls for authentic yoga often came from people who weren’t very nice outside of teaching yoga. What’s bananas is that many of these yoga critics aren’t teaching or practicing yoga anymore. They moved on to other things.

I stayed and decided to offer yoga in a way that feels like I am truly helping people. It looks different than how I was initially trained. It involves deconstructing and adapting asana so it’s fun and approachable. It also includes non-asana movement, mobility and strength. It relies less on prescriptive alignment and promotes curiosity and variability.

Now when people say, that’s not real yoga I say, OK.

I don’t need the word yoga to feel real or credible in my work. I use the word yoga to describe SOME of what I teach, because that is the word that the general public uses and understands.

From Arundhati Baitmangalkar:

Must you teach philosophy in an asana class? The short answer is NO…

Most yoga teachers teach only asana, the physical practice of yoga. An asana class should offer you asana for the most part. If that’s what you’re calling it. Experienced practitioners may be ready & willing for more.

The problem is when teachers, who haven’t studied, understood or have full cultural context of yoga, start to think that they have to give “dharma talks” in class or offer philosophy to someone who barely knows what yoga is about.

I’ll leave you with two things to think about:

Don’t feel pressurized to offer yoga philosophy in your asana classes. This creates a lot of harm as we teach interpretations of yoga. You’re not meant to be a philosopher & that’s okay. Be a student of philosophy instead if you love that side of yoga.

Don’t rush to try to do and be everything to everyone. You don’t need to be forced into being someone you’re not.

Notice where your students are at. This is so important. Serve them. Meet them where they’re at. If they sit at a desk all day, have high stress, poor sleep, aches and pains. They don’t need a lecture but a carefully crafted asana, pranayama and restorative session.

You don’t have to teach every single thing you learn in yoga.

Yamas & niyamas can sometimes be weaved into classes. Maybe even some sutras but it has to come from an authentic place with lived experience & wisdom. AND your student needs to be ready. If your student isn’t ready there is no point.

Yoga philosophy isn’t something you can learn in a weekend course of 2 hours and repeat…Take the pressure off…so you can feel content in the phase of yoga you are in. Seek more but teach only if you have a 100% clarity.