All of my #365yoga contributions will not be happy, bobble-heading, OM-inducing attempts. Some will be my real hesitations about this industry and the bastardized liberties we take in the west with this practice as we put it on a funky pedestal.
Today I am writing about the HUSTLE. I was at a graduation and football viewing party over the weekend with a newly-minted yoga instructor. We started talking about what direction she wants to take her teaching and we got on the topic of teacher workshops and the such. I was quick to warn her of the hustle. Almost everyone is trying to sell you some sort of their product/brand. Now, people need to be paid and as experienced teachers compensation should be expected. However it seems that every time I turn around I am being invited and sometimes what feels like straight-up hustled to compensate fellow instructors $20 here, $100 there, or $500 elsewhere. I hate it when I get into casual conversations with fellow instructors I meet and within a few moments of interaction they go beyond mentioning some workshop they are holding and are trying to commit me to attend. This happens with a great deal of frequency with the geographical market I am in.
Today I was reading about John Friend. He has taken his “sabbatical” from the last half of 2012 where he spent a good deal of quality time at a studio less than a mile from my home to develop a new style of yoga called The Roots. He is Mr. Anusara who had to take the sabbatical in the aftermath of a February 2012 sex scandal (cliche, but I’ll save that for another post) and began being public with his teaching in October 2012. So here we are in January 2013 and he has what could be a revolutionary new 52-asana sequence ready to market to the masses. To be fair I think it was mostly created by Desi and Micah Springer (who own the studio he chose to immerse his sabbatical time at) and the sisters presented it to him because he really is an alignment wizard.
Anyway, less than a year after having to walk from the heart-centered, alignment-touted Anusara he is starting the marketing machine for another style of yoga to confuse newbies and intrigue those with more developed practices. Le sigh.
To be more fair I have had the pleasure of attending a John Friend mega-practice at a big yoga festival in the past and am chomping at the bit to attend an alignment workshop of his soon especially since he is down the street from me. I cannot attend the two-day workshop this weekend only because of my anniversary but am looking at his schedule in hopes he will do more of these. I do not feel his teaching value is a hustle, but coming out with a new style of yoga less than a year after a turbulent event… come on now!
Do you feel ever feel hustled to attend events by acquaintances or organizations? Note, I did not even touch on whether YA actually means ANYTHING to anyone.
On the other hand I should “hustle” more in an attempt to meet financial goals I have set for myself and my teaching this year. Yoga is a business, it is a big, big business with many of us little players.
Hear hear! I hate the yoga “hustle.” You pinned it on the nose. (And don’t even get me started on YA….HA!) But, I agree, that John Friend has intrigued me, whether I want to be intrigued or not! You have to go for me–and blog about the experience for all of us!
I’m with ya’ sister! I would love to be able to support all the great teachers I know, but really…there’s only so much money in my pocket book & so many hours in a day…And, to be quite frank, not all of the offerings available to me are of interest to my practice or to my business…