I am very verbal about my concern for the Yoga community. As a whole, it has become more of a showcase for teachers who want to be entertainers, a place where corporations can make a lot of money and, unfortunately, where little-to-no growth or healing is taking place anymore.

All of this while claiming to be beneficial. Even after 18 years (on and off) and 12 years (consistently) of practice, I am still learning about Yoga. However, one thing that I know about it is that you cannot fake it. It has to come from a place of authenticity.

If you do fake it as a teacher, practitioner or studio, you will attract and generate students who are faking it, too. Which creates a culture of preach without practice; the opposite of different Yogic practices, such as: satya (truthfulness) and asana (posture practice).

The beautiful resource of Yoga has been around over 5000 years and I am grateful to be able to practice it as often as I can. That is why I think it is imperative to return to authenticity. It’s time to weed out the fake Yogis so that the tradition can remain beneficial with teachers who know what they are talking about. And, communities that foster spirituality and wellness.

Here are 9 ways that we can keep The Yoga community authentic:

1. By being selective with teacher-trainings. Not everyone is capable of being a genuinely good teacher.

2. By leaving out politics or any other agendas.

It is a huge turn-off when teachers take it upon themselves to shame voters or push an agenda upon their students that is of their own. Shaming is the opposite of compassion and genuine love. As teachers, it is none of our business who votes for whom. We are not dictators; we need to be more humble than that.

3. By maintaining leaders who practice themselves. There is a huge difference between teachers who practice Yoga and those who don’t.

4. By educating Yogis on more than Asana. There are 8 limbs to Yoga, not just one.

5. By holding studio owners who are greedy and unethical accountable. I have worked for enough of them to know that most people who start Yoga businesses do so purely for money and it taints the purity of the culture.

6. By weeding out Yoga teachers who use the studio as their entertainment stage. Yoga teachers are not actors or performers. To teach comes from the heart; not all from a place of attention-seeking.

7. Having teachers who are honest (not mean) with students. There is this idea that to be a good teacher, you need to be tough. I disagree with this. You can be a solid teacher and be firm but still kind.

8. By paying teachers more and providing them with stability. I have yet to encounter a Yoga studio that financially values it’s teachers.

9. By separating sculpt, barre and popular workouts from a Yoga practice. As much as I love weight training, there is more to it than the physical.