Most of the important decisions I have made in my life were governed more by gut feeling than empirical data. Potentially, this indicates a tendency towards magical thinking that makes me more vulnerable to manipulation by charismatic figures and conspiracy theories. Or possibly, I am tapping into an inner wisdom that shapes my experience of reality in ways that better align with a cosmic order…

My ten year old daughter is becoming a better writer than I will ever be. As her vocabulary continues to grow, she seems to be able to access her words with the same level of abandonment that children have when scribbling with crayons. The reckless freedom of her expression is like a salve amidst the paralyzing reality of our worlds being shut down.

I could never have imagined a day when all the yoga centers would be closed. How could that possibly happen? A global pandemic that requires social distancing to stem the tide of contagion, that’s how. In the course of only a few weeks, the entire world has been turned upside down and the already shaky ground on which Yogaland was built is at serious risk of complete collapse.

Eastern traditions and lineages, transposed onto western cultures in the mainstreaming of yoga, have been romanticized and commodified to an extent that there no longer seems to be clear authoritative sources for yogic knowledge and education. The abuses of charismatic teachers have so tainted the field of study that it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between beneficial teachings and the manipulations.

Regardless of the details of what happened, I believe that Mark Whitwell abused Christie Roe and his behavior was unacceptable. I think yoga teachers need to set high standards for themselves and Mark has failed to live up to his ethical obligations. He wrote that all of his relationships have been “consensual and mutual” but there was nothing mutual about Mark’s relationship with Christie. They were never standing on equal ground.

The yoga industry is experiencing a diseconomy of scale. Those clinging to conventional ways of doing business are scratching their heads as the bottom appears to be finally dropping out of what has been a cushy ride up until now. Corporate players, wielding a late-stage capitalist playbook, are doing their darndest to line their pockets while they stave off the inevitable by sticking it to teachers and students. Now that the momentum is…

Questions around consent and touch in yoga classes boiled over this month into a high profile feature article and video documentary by the NY Times. More than just profiling the abuse scandals of Patabhi Jois, the author puts a generational gap in how yoga teachers view what they do, and why, on full display. Most people agree that the old ways of doing things are no longer acceptable, but what do we do with those lagging behind the curve?

In their latter years, yoga teachers who rely solely on their practice for physical fitness often end up realizing the shortcomings of traditional postures and look to other forms of exercise as part of their overall self-care. In particular, adding some sort of strength training can often become warranted. However, the integration of strength training into yoga practice as a marketing angle easily becomes misleading.

In general, I am in favor of labor unions. I support anything that can be done to curtail the deafening power of corporations and help give more agency to workers and regular people. So when the NY Times reports that yoga teachers are attempting to unionize, and Bernie Sanders and other prominent politicians tweet out their support, my gut response was to cheer. Unfortunately, the recent efforts to unionize ignore the root causes…

I lost it the other day. My elder daughter was being horribly mean to her younger sister. When I came downstairs to see what the commotion was, she was taunting and teasing her. The trauma of the interaction was written all over her four year-old sister’s face. I realize that this is relatively common among kids but I had been watching the news just prior, and was feeling overwhelmed by the inhumanity and intolerance …

Yoga is officially mainstream. No one thinks of going to yoga class as being a subversive act anymore. To the average person, attending a yoga class is comparable to taking pilates, crossfit, or zumba. The golden age of expansion for yoga has succeeded in removing the taboo but the vestige of its radical underpinnings has been whitewashed in the process. Fortunately, in the margins of the industry, a new renaissance is quietly brewing.

There is nothing convenient about yoga. In order to truly grasp it, you have to be willing to risk everything. You can’t buy it for $3000. It has to come from a deep inquiry inside yourself and no one else knows what that will look like except you. And if you manage to gain some wisdom, be prepared to face repercussions. Because once the chains of acquiescence are broken, it becomes impossible to to do anything but disrupt.