I have learned in my time with this research that to say that you are a yoga teacher is practically the same thing as saying you are a good person. Whether among friends, or to total strangers, I am bound to receive an admiring nod, an implicit sense of camaraderie, and here’s the freakiest part—people start to tell me their problems. I know this reaction; it’s almost formulaic: Stranger A will look deeply into my eyes to let me know that they are a fellow ‘seeker’, and in hushed tones, proceed to unburden themselves of various despondencies, most of which refer to their general estrangement from reality. Somewhere along the way, my identity as a yoga teacher has quietly and unassumingly merged with that of psychologist and minister. Through the years, it has become an identity that troubles me, and at times, has made me pull away from my yoga practice. The fact is, I am in no way capable, nor licensed to be a therapist. I repeat: I am not a healer.
For all the American yogis and yoginis out there who love/hate or are just (like me) perplexed by yoga in the U.S., this blog is for you.
For dissertators and those-who-procrastinate-by-cooking, I'm also your girl.
