Yoga isn’t just about peace.

By Monica Ingram

I recently came upon information about a yoga festival when I was browsing the internet, like I had many times before. Except this time it made me feel differently. I started looking over the guest instructors, teachers, “professionals,” that were presenting at this event. And I increasingly became more and more upset. There was not one single individual that I felt represented what I needed, that represented the average person, or even represented what humans need to work through (especially right now) in their teachings and classes. 

Every teacher started to morph in front of my eyes into these clones of one another. They all started to look the same, that lifeless smile of false inner peace that gave me an empty yet frustrated feeling. Where was the individuality? The representation? Not just representation in the physical appearances aspect, but representation of all the emotions and areas that yoga is there to help you process. Yoga isn't all love and light and namaste. Humans don't and can't just operate on the good shit. Why? Because were mutha fuckin’ humans! We’re full of emotion and frustration and energy. If we continuously plaster on a fake smile, talk in a fake ass “yogi” voice and allow our only emotion to be peace, then we’re ignoring or stuffing down a whole array of wonderful emotions that come with our amazing human life.

So let’s let yoga be a representation of and all encompassing of all humans and all emotions. Let’s break those barriers, allow ourselves to feel every emotion. Allow ourselves to be the messy, complicated humans that we are. Because that’s where the true yoga happens.

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