Dear Yoga Teachers, don’t make Yoga more difficult than it is – 1 Oct 15

In the past two days I described a little bit in which ways we like to make yoga easy for our students and participants. The day before yesterday I told you that we don’t usually correct the yogis and yoginis in front of us and yesterday I explained why we don’t even use the Sanskrit terms for the yoga poses. I actually believe in making things easy and I think that helps others as well.

I know, people have the tendency to make things difficult. I have seen yoga teachers present yoga as an overly difficult science that nobody can understand unless they are in some way initiated by a yoga guru. There are yoga teachers who like to show the most difficult postures even to a beginners’ class. Others will use as many Sanskrit words in their class as possible.

I don’t think this is the way and while it may give you the feeling that you are an extraordinary person, better, more flexible, more exact than others, it is not really necessary to act like this.

You don’t actually need to take a small and simple thing just to stretch it, to explain it over an extended time! You could just say it simply as well! You can of course show others how flexible you are in the most advanced yoga postures but give others the feeling as though they will also reach there with regular practice, no problem!

I have actually seen this in other fields as well. It is by far not only a habit of yoga teachers! It is a general behavior I often see especially in people who have a bit low self-esteem. They need to present the things they have mastered as very difficult so that they can feel better about it. It is people who cannot satisfy their ego in simplicity and by making things easy.

While this is completely logical and in this way understandable as well, I would suggest you, if you have caught yourself doing the same thing, to find other ways to feel good about yourself. Realize that you have a lot of achievements, that you have your own qualities, that you are valuable enough also by achieving what others can as well achieve. You don’t need to have done something which ‘nobody else can do’ or ‘only the best can do’.

Don’t base your self-esteem on these things – that would be a very fragile base! You are worth your self-love just for who you are!