issue #139 - the one about social change through yoga

Tejal on creating a yoga community centered around social justice

June 19, 2022

Yoga changed my life. But not in the love & light way that you usually hear about from the smiley, happy, shiny Lululegging people. 

I grew up in an Hindu Indian household near Detroit, MI where yoga was always a part of my life. It was when I started going to yoga studios in NYC and traveling the world for yoga teacher trainings, that  I noticed how many issues and conflicts existed in the yoga industry. My experiences and the harm that I faced, I share a key one here (scroll down to “About Tejal”, have led me on the path where I now offer yoga through a social justice lens with a focus on accessibility and inclusivity.

Yoga, as we all know, is a spiritual philosophy with practical applications in daily life that comes to us from South Asia. The wellness industry, being led by thin, able-bodied, affluent white women, tends to forget that critical piece - that yoga comes to us from a place and a people. Far too often, we see yoga practiced as a fitness routine for the hypermobile, hyperathletic, hyperflexible crowd wearing skimpy and expensive athleisure fits. I wonder if you’ve noticed this too? But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Because of my work in social justice and yoga along with my South Asian identity, I am in a unique position to address some of the harms that are inflicted on marginalized, underestimated and BIPOC yoga students. In fact, I was interviewed about this exactly in the 2021 NBC feature White women co-opted pandemic yoga. Now, South Asian instructors are taking it back.

My goal is to create and sustain spaces for people to practice yoga without the harsh judgment or pressures of the wellness industry. I work to dismantle the idea that you need to pay for really expensive, hot yoga, pop-music driven, vinyasa flow classes to experience the benefits of yoga. My philosophy and the philosophy of many of my peers, is that yoga is about relationships. Four main relationships, actually, and that the health of the most foundational relationship, the one between you & you, informs the health of all the other relationships that yoga fosters: you & those closest to you, you & your community, you & the environment.

Reclaiming the practices of yoga and organizing a supportive, engaging community has changed my life completely. And it’s also changed the life of so many others:

“Love Tejal Yoga! Variety of class times -some shorter to get in some asana on busy days. Love the many weekly meditations as I love the replays to help me wind down for bedtime. And no spiritual bypassing or toxic positivity- very sincere and informed instructions without emphasis on body image, yoga workouts, and weight loss. All are welcome here.”

“Thank you for your work and speaking out. The true essence of Yoga is becoming lost to over commercialization of the West. Thank you for fostering an authentic and diverse community.”

“Love this community and all that you do! Being a South Asian myself I feel heard watching you stand up so selflessly for all of us xx.”

I left my finance career after 9 years because I found my work in yoga to be so extremely grounding and fulfilling. Have you ever made a change that felt intuitively right? It’s been 10 years since I stepped into my own as a yoga teacher, writer, podcaster, and community organizer and I feel so lucky and privileged to love what I do for work everyday. I no longer have to, I GET TO work with amazing activists and seekers of true yogic knowledge, through my innovative projects like Tejal Yoga & abcdyogi and with my first e-book The Original Godmothers of Yoga! Of course, I continue to combat issues of racism, othering, spiritual bypassing and discrimination, just check out the troll comments on this Insider video: Yoga Teachers Debunk 12 Yoga Myths | Debunked and the 1-⭐️ reviews on my revolutionary Yoga is Dead podcast. But the student reflections and community support makes this work worthwhile and keeps me resilient even when I get hate and negative comments. I wonder, what practices keep you resilient when you’re feeling overwhelmed? I asked this to my community recently, click to read the reminders that we use. 

I want to thank Hitha for inviting me to takeover this week’s newsletter! We met only recently, after being in  each other’s orbits for a while, when she posted on IG to uplift my workshop So You Want to Chant Om and Namaste? Using Spiritual Terms with Respect. We share about our backgrounds, careers, and mutual respect for one another. I’m excited to feature Hitha in my work and through abcdyogi, another Yoga and Mindfulness community I organize, in the coming months!

And I’m excited to stay connected with you too! I just launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for Tejal Yoga, your inclusive virtual yoga community offering movement, meditation, and yoga education through a social justice lens. I crafted a list of rewards that will help you start practicing today! You can choose from a week or month pass of unlimited yoga, my famous chai ritual kit, a specially curated sacred altar bundle, and even secure your spot in our first in-person yoga retreat in Southern California next year! Learn more here.

Like Hitha, I also send newsletters with engaging content, personal stories, and studio updates. Here’s a link to read about my first experience at a Float Spa and how it brought up questions of cultural appropriation, co-opted spirituality, and wellness fads.

What Tejal Read This Week:

I spent some quality time with a good friend this week. In her apartment she has what I call “The Essential Bookshelf” and we spent a few evenings, cozy on the couch, reflecting on major themes from these seminal books:

  • Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help YouFind - and Keep - Love by Amir Levine, Rachel Heller - my friend and I both resonate with being empaths and often discuss how deeply we feel in relationships. The insights and quiz in this book helped us to unpack a bit of our behaviors and responses in partnerships as well as understand a bit more in-depth as to why we default to certain patterns. It was especially fascinating to compare our results now to the previous times we’d taken the quiz.

  • All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks - this timeless classic always offers me something new each time I pick it up. Both heart wrenching and extremely honest, the whole book lays out how we learn about love, where the gaps in our knowledge come from, and answers the question of why we struggle to achieve deep and requited love in this lifetime.

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon - I know we don’t usually do this on 5SR, but this short pocket book by Alok is on my must read list. I offer it here to ask you, what were your reflections when you read it?

What Everyone Else Read This Week:

  • Group Therapy by BB Easton- I love when a romance author does something different, and Group Therapy by BB Easton definitely fits that vibe. It's the story of psychologist in training whose new client is her favorite mystery author who has lost his writing mojo. He's also smoking hot. And of course, having anything but a strictly professional relationship would ruin her career. This book is so funny (I genuinely laughed out loud several times), sexy, chaotic and slightly unhinged (and contains several Harry Styles references) and you need to put this on your list ASAP.

  • Meant to be Mine by Hannah Orenstein - I know Hitha loved this book too from the great Hannah Orenstein. It's her best yet and bursting with Jewish family traditions, great food (and cocktails) and a story about fate, love, and trusting yourself that you'll finish in one or two sittings.

  • Know My Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller- Millers’ memoir played a significant role in my master’s dissertation, but I haven’t revisited the text since then because it is quite triggering for me. I finally picked up my own physical copy of the book on a recent road trip to central Kansas, and am slowly working my way through it by reading it aloud to myself. This time through, I’m struck more and more by the hope that blooms from resilience and community.

  • Emotional Inheritance by Galit Atlas, PhD - I recently heard Dr. Atlas on Glennon Doyle's podcast and had to buy the book. My mind was blown! I'm fascinated by generational trauma, and this book, which was part memoir, part client stories, and part research, truly made me stop and think about my own family's lineage - especially when it comes to mental health. Highly recommend it.

  • The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by JanelleMonae - I’m obsessed with Janelle Monae and among her many, many other talents, she is an amazing writer. I’m currently devouring these short stories derived from her album, Dirty Computer. It’s Afro-futurism meets sci-fi meets social/political allegory. Plus, she’s assembled an incredible roster of co-authors who collaborated on the project with her. A must-read.

Top #5SmartReads of the Week

The rest of the week’s reads (and conversations!) are below:

Your Yoga Questions, Answered

How can I build a sustainable practice? 

  1. Don’t be afraid to start small, like 60 seconds of practice, or 2 minutes of movement or 5 minutes of meditation, and do your best to stick with it nearly everyday. 

  2. Try not to aim for a “perfect” practice. Perfectionism is when you wait for conditions to be perfect before you start something. With yoga, the mind can run rampant with all the reasons why you think you’re not ready to begin a yoga practice. When that happens and you find yourself thinking, “I don’t have the right outfit, or I can’t touch my toes, or I’m not good at meditating,  etc.” remind yourself that perfection in yoga is not the goal. Yoga is about showing up for yourself at least a little bit everyday in a way that guides you towards a more peaceful co-existence.

  3. Give yourself grace when you miss your expectations and remember to come back to the practices of yoga. One of the most helpful reminders of this is from the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 verse 40: “On this [spiritual] path, no gain is ever reversed, no effort is ever wasted. Only a little of this work can undo great suffering and harm.”

What’s the best way to learn modifications?

  1. Work with teachers that have a history of offering accessible practices. Look out for this type of language in class descriptions: beginner friendly, modifications and variations offered, accessible practice, props encouraged, etc.

  2. Ask questions and share your concerns, practice level, injury history, and required modifications. Most intake forms ask students to share as much as possible in order for the teacher to best prepare for class. Don’t skip this part when you register for a class, or better yet, send an email with this information in advance of the class.

Ways white women can ensure they are being honorable/appreciative, not appropriating yoga?

There’s a lot I can say about this! Here are a few major considerations:

  • Is your yoga practice ignoring or denying the South Asian roots of yoga?

    • Seek out South Asian teachers and teachers that speak critically about the white-washing of yoga, start here with abcdyogi, a community of SA teachers offer free education

    • Start your own critical conversations about changes you wish to see in the yoga and wellness world, download these tips of Allyship 

    • Research what educational opportunities exist to learn more about the intersection of yoga, its origins, and social justice, like in the Yoga is Dead podcast

  • Are you treating yoga as a fitness class or novelty activity rather than a spiritual practice?

    • Notice the harm and exclusion a spiritually bypassing yoga class does to South Asian teachers and students, read more on this here.

    • Choose classes that teach the principles of yoga and not only the poses of yoga, start at Tejal Yoga

    • Reject the gimmicks that are now associated with yoga i.e. beer, goat, read more of my opinion in this NY POST article on Drunk Yoga

I offer a ton of education in these areas and I’d love to invite you to check out my work with Tejal Yoga, abcdyogi, and the Yoga is Dead podcast, all linked here.

Where do I start if I want to practice at home… 60 y.o. & not fit

This one is easy! Start with Tejal Yoga! We offer accessible, inclusive, beginner-friendly yoga movement and meditation classes nearly every day of the week. Our practices are led by South Asian instructors who honor and embody the roots of yoga. If you can’t find a time to practice live you can try an On-Demand membership! Remember to include your practice level, injury history, and any concerns you have in your new student registration form so we can better serve you and meet your needs! Learn more at https://tejalyoga.com/now

Where can I go for residential yoga TTC? Goal is more for personal learning.

There are many worthy teacher training schools in the world. If possible, go to India for training at some point in your life. I took my first teacher training in NYC (non-residential) and later went to India for a 300hr intensive study and ashram stay. That worked for me! 

Start to have conversations with people about your goals and desires for yoga training. Remember there isn’t a single right way to learn about yoga. In fact, there are many ways to learn and study. Be as diverse as possible in your approach to discover what works best for your needs! If you’re asking someone for advice, remember to book time on their calendar where possible. If you’d like to discuss further with me, I’m available for mentoring calls here.

How do I get over my fear of holding myself up when in a handstand?

Is it really about getting a handstand or is it about getting to know yourself better under seemingly challenging circumstances? I wonder if it’s a little bit of both. Fear is another way of enacting perfectionism. There are two things I might suggest about how we work with fear:

  1. Care for your fear rather than avoiding it. Fear may not go away completely, so how can you move forward? I would advise letting your feelings of joy, excitement, happiness and peace also take up space within yourself so that you may care for your fear the way you would care for a best friend in need. Maybe that will lead to getting yourself up in a handstand or maybe it will simply lead you towards a more balanced mindset.

  2. Suffering begets more suffering. What I mean is that when you spend time worrying about a circumstance “I historically have not held a handstand before.”, you may have less energy to think about all the ways you can prepare yourself for future positive outcomes. Remember Yoga Sutra 2.16 “Pain that has not yet come, can be avoided.” as a way to remember that mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual suffering in the future may be avoided in how we prepare today.

What’s the best way to start a yoga practice for beginners?

  1. By starting now! Try this with me: Place your feet on the ground, breath in deeply, exhale fully, getting taller. Think about your breath. Breathe in for a comfortable number of seconds. Hold and pause. Exhale for the same amount of seconds. Repeat 4 more times. Congratulations! You just completed a practice of breath awareness and single pointed focus. 

  2. By learning that yoga is a practice of focus, connection, and spirituality. That can be practiced in a number of ways like yoga movement and poses, meditation, breath control, etc. Read more about the 8-limbed path of yoga here.  

“Now begins again the discipline of yoga.” - Yoga Sutra 1.1 with the reminder that every moment is a chance to practice yoga.

Thank you for being such a wonderful reader! I truly appreciate you bringing me your genuine interest and honest questions about the spiritual philosophy of yoga and how it helps to achieve a more peaceful existence.

Like Hitha, I also send newsletters with engaging content, personal storytelling, and Tejal Yoga studio updates. Here’s a link to read from one of my previous newsletters, it’s the story of my first experience at a Float Spa and how it brought up questions of cultural appropriation, co-opted spirituality, and wellness fads.

Remember you can support Tejal Yoga in standing in the face of white-washed yoga and wellness!! Everybody has a part to play in the fight for social justice. Visit the Tejal Yoga crowdfunding page, choose a reward, and then share the page with your community! Be a part of a much needed change to decolonize wellness and support the authentic and culturally-rooted practice of yoga.

Take good care! 

Warmly,Tejal

Support Tejal’s yoga justice campaign here.

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