I have happily decided to temporarily leave the yoga industry at the moment. After 8 years of teaching, it is clear to me that a lot of yoga studios are not only mismanaged but need a refresher.

We need more transparency, respect and integrity in the yoga industry because right now, the caliber of studios will not suffice. Obviously, I am speaking about the places that I have taught at and visited. So, this is not all places or studios.

However, as a whole, things need to change. There are secrets in the yoga industry that need to be revealed and brought to light so that we can heal them.

Here are 3 Secrets revealed about the yoga industry:

1. It is driven by greed.

When I began teaching 8 years ago, I wondered to myself if I could make it happen teaching full-time and be financially sustainable. I was toying between teaching yoga and teaching children. I was going to go back to school to become a kindergarten teacher. I am very glad that I chose to teach yoga and do not regret it at all.

However, just because I don’t regret the path that I chose doesn’t mean that I can’t speak of it. Once I started teaching and making money, I saw very quickly that it was driven by greed on all sides. Greedy studios and teachers who are trying to survive. Therefore, they end up misleading and trapping people into contracts or signing up for things that they didn’t sign up for.

I have worked for my fair share of yoga studios to have seen that there is a deep lack of integrity in the yoga industry. I think it stems from the studio owners who use starting a studio as a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme so teachers are often underpaid and not recognized. Thus, teachers end up in survival-mode barely making anything.

My solution to this is simple and maybe one day, I will open my own to create a high vibration amongst studios. It is that owners need to be held up to a higher standard of integrity. Whether by their students or other studios. Accountability will shift the energy and direction that they have taken, as a whole.

2. There is very little Yoga practiced anymore.

Whatever the influence of the lack of the yogic principles, very few yoga studios practice the foundations of yoga:The 8 limbs of Yoga.

I used to teach for a yoga studio that was named after the 8 limbs of yoga but was far from it. They lacked all of them: asana, pranayama, dhyana, dharana, niyama&yamas, pratyahara and samadhi. They would pretend that this was the foundation; however, from teaching there and being in those spaces, it is all a front.

There are a lot of yoga studios that put on a front of being spiritual and a place where one can find themselves. However, it all a facade because deep down, it is about money.

While I am a capitalist and business owner (myself), I believe in holding others accountable and being honest. Until, there is transparency in the yoga industry, fake yoga studios will be a common trend.

3. It is filled with narcissists.

I cannot tell you the amount of narcissists that I have met who teach yoga or own a yoga studio. You’re probably shocked to hear this but it is a reality of the yoga industry that needs to be revealed.

It’s almost like yoga studios have become a place where people can hide their traumas and avoid doing the work. Most yoga teachers I have met will tell other people what to do and do not do it themselves. I have seen yoga teachers steal, lie, take narcotics and more dubious behavior. Following this, there will be phrases to gaslight such as ‘we are all doing our best’ or ‘who are we to judge’.

While I genuinely believe only God can judge, we are allowed to put up boundaries of what we want to have around us. The blanket statements to deflect blame and responsibility from those who are tainting this industry needs to end.

It is okay to practice yoga in an authentic way without the trends, substances or extra technology to assist you. The whole purpose of yoga is to connect your mind, body and spirit. We have been disillusioned to think that we need to have a community, a place where we pay tons of money and learn from a ‘superstar’ yoga teacher to do so.

That is completely inaccurate. Practicing yoga should be one of the most simple things that you have done in your life. If it’s not, it’s time to get down to the basics. Find a genuine studio with dedicated students who are not there to be famous or seen but there to just be. Find out if your teachers are paid enough and decide whether you still want to practice there after knowing how they might or are being treated.