It’s very evident that we are energetically going through a change where, as a collective, we are sick and tired of the hierarchy and, how things have been going. In Astrological terms, we have moved from The Piscean age to The Aquarian age, which began in 2012. A diversion from being lead and following into leadership & authenticity.

Whether you believe in astrology or other terminology associated with this turn in history, it is apparent that people are done with leaders who have abused their power and expect more from people at the top. Thankfully, the time has come for us to hold ourselves and others accountable. We have seen examples of this in every industry: Harvey Weinstein, Bikram Choudhury, John of God, Bill Cosby and many others who were patriarchal authorities that allegedly abused their power by inflicting pain upon others.

There are many questions to ask how and why this was able to happen in the first place; however, we cannot erase the past. All that we can do is move forward and progress from where we came from. We are coming from a place where happiness was often considered a luxury and only available for the elite. As things shift, we are coming to understand that passion, happiness and health are for everyone- not just the elite.

In order for this to happen, we need the people who are running things this way to step out of power so that new leaders can replace them and so that we can all start afresh.

Here are 3 of the reasons why many of our leaders are being stripped of their power:

1. The Guru& student relationship is outdated.

There is something very beautiful about learning from another person. I, myself, have had fantastic mentors who have helped me progress as a student and yoga teacher. However, I have never felt comfortable with the idea of someone being my Guru. The idea of learning from only one person and elevating them above human status has always seemed scary to me. I’ve continually questioned, who is going to hold them accountable? The same thing goes for why I have never bought into the idea of celebrity because I believe that most people who have had an impact on my life have not been famous.

The mentality behind putting another person on a pedestal has always frightened me because I know what great responsibility it is to be looked up to. Building another human-being up to perfection only sets us and the other person up for failure because if we see them as perfect, they will prove to us that they aren’t (one day) because they are human and none of us are meant to be perfect.

This new era of authenticity and understanding allows us to rise up and become our own teachers. An example of this is that I used to have a mentor in Brooklyn, New York City, before I became a teacher. To me, she embodies compassion, authenticity and attributes that I wanted to embody (myself). I would take her class every noon during the weekday. She stopped teaching yoga after she had her first child and never returned after that. Her leaving sent me into a depression because I relied on her for my practice, to get through life and challenges that I faced. To this day, I have not had a teacher like her but I had to understand and fully comprehend that she has been an influence on me and my yoga practice, yes! However, she is human and I can’t rely on her to be everything I need. Instead of looking for her to be my saviour, I can look within. Hold myself accountable, rely on myself and do the work that I need to do become a healthier and healed person.

2. In this era, we are stepping into true abundance.

I went to a British all-girls junior and high school that was very competitive and to me was depressive. I sometimes question why I was sent to that school and what I remind myself is that I was sent their because my parents wanted my potential to shine.

I am not bashing this schooling system; however, I do not do well with competitive circumstances even though I like to compete in things for fun. To me, competition is about being influenced by another to be my best; not that someone else is number 1 so then I must suck. Recently, I have been studying and applying abundance to my life. Not by the dictionary definition but by the spiritual one: that there is enough for everyone therefore if I give enough, work hard enough, manifest enough and love enough, the outcome is always worthy.

I reach my full potential by living this way; not someone else’s potential but my own. Which means that sometimes, I will not be number 1 and that is okay. As we shift into this way of thinking, we start to help each other more, love more, appreciate each other more, understand one another more and grow together because we are learning that there is enough for everyone; contrary to how many of us were raised.

3. Discipline and abuse are no longer partnered together.

We have been raised in a culture that allows abuse to occur as long as it is for the ‘benefit’ of the person being abused. Meaning that a lot of parents will hit, yell and scream at their kids to get their point across because they believe that that is the only way to enforce discipline in their children’s lives.

I am not here to judge anyone’s parental skills. However, we have been shown that children who are subjected to violence and abuse regardless of why it has been used towards a child, often represent and embody abusive personalities. It becomes a part of their subconscious, deep trauma that they will spend their lives reversing and healing from.

In other words, enforcing discipline with an iron fist can be damaging. As a yoga teacher and spiritual coach, I have learnt that there are ways to enforce discipline without treating the disciplined as though they are garbage or in an inhumane way because how people are treated leaves more of a mark on us than the reason for why we were treated that way in the first place.