“You should feel the stretch more in your left hamstring here.” “Engage your core.” “Lift up higher.” Cues filled with shoulds and self-criticism pervade many yoga classes. Instructors often project advice from their own bodily ideals rather than guiding students to tune into inner sensation. Yet this overrides yoga’s original purpose – connecting to innate body wisdom. Ancient yogic texts like the Bhagavad Gita explicitly describe yoga as skill in action based on self-knowledge, not conforming to external ideals. How did we stray so far from this ethos?
By re-examining yoga philosophy’s foundational principles, we uncover the radical act of celebrating each student’s unique embodiment. The sacred texts exalt the divinity within all beings equally, not ranked by societally defined hierarchies. Yoga originated as a practice embracing each individual’s distinctive path to awakening, not forcing change. What if teachers empowered students to honor physiological cues and set intentions aligned to personal values versus imposing shapes deemed “correct”?
Trauma research reveals how directing students repetitively often unintentionally re-traumatizes by replicating oppressive power dynamics. This inadvertently signals that authority figures and external validation outweigh students’ inner wisdom. Healing requires the opposite – welcoming student agency through collaborative goal setting and tuning inward.
What if we guided students to notice areas calling for more space or support? How might we encourage moving with, not against the body’s truths? As teachers embody compassion, we model respecting limitations and loving whole selves. This gradually builds interoceptive skills students carry off their mats to combat negative self-talk and comparison. Through yoga, we discover liberation from disempowering narratives about our bodies requiring fixing. We reclaim authority to write new stories, shaped by inner wisdom whispering we are enough.