r/YogaTeachers

I’ve been thinking about how often yoga philosophy gets presented as a collection of nice ideas that can make modern life feel a little better. But few Western teachers are teaching it in their classes.

Patanjali begins the Yoga Sutras with yogas chitta vritti nirodhah, defining yoga in terms of the cessation of the fluctuations of consciousness.
That seems considerably more demanding than “See how flexible you can be” or “find your inner peace”.

For those who have studied the Yoga Sutras seriously, how do you incorporate these lessons into your classes, and if you don’t, why don’t you think it’s important? This isn’t a judgement, just genuine curiosity.

I generally believe that most people have a weak core and need to work on strengthening to prevent injury and improve on form. Therefore i am a big proponent of core work in my sequences. I primarily utilize accepted poses as a portion of my flow.

However, I have started building in minor Pilates exercises/motions as part of my sequencing and make it flow organically. I do not announce that a motion/exercise/pose is not “yoga” rather I just move through them as a part of the class. Generally people express appreciation of the challenge and enjoy my classes.

I’m curious to what the greater Yoga Teacher community thinks about this? Do other teachers do something similar? What are your recommendations and why?

As most of us, I want to improve by bettering myself, my instruction, and those around me.

Thank you.