We ended the last post about truth and fact in regards to the Life of a Modern Yogi. You have to wonder sometimes if, for the sake of yoga, it is important to have rules and guidelines. Or, is it ok to just let everyone run wild with an idea that many women and men spent entire lifetimes to create and mold, while a twenty something can receive their 200-hour certification and become a guru to thousands. What siddhi is that?
On one hand I’m proud of the twenty-something and extremely happy that someone that age has taken to yoga in their life. If I would have found yoga in my earlier days, I can’t even imagine how my life would have turned out. On the other hand, who is to say that this younger person has more knowledge from previous lifetimes and this is their time to shine. Keeping this in check is very important to a modern yogi. It is also very confusing because in a world where everything is labeled and classified, yoga stresses about not being too rigid and being open-minded.
Coming back to social media, how do we know that these followers are all real? With services that can get you as many followers as you want, you can easily deceive people into thinking that you have a huge following. However, the only people that you truly know is your mom and aunt who love you very much. This goes for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Bogus followers that don’t validate any skill or ability just a perception.
For example, take Natasha Noel, who I admire because I know her personally, but do not enjoy her social media practices. She promotes body positivity and helps people that suffer from abuse. Let me just say that these are fantastic things to do in the name of yoga. However, I have to wonder if part of her own recovery has brought on an ego sense that she is not completely aware of. Let me say again that I completely love her but just feel that she is way more genuine in person than on social media.
For the modern yogi, the business of yoga is all about the money. Can you go back again and imagine a world before the word business was create. Yoga was a lifestyle. I feel that yoga has become a marketing term used in the health and wellness to cover mind, body and spirituality. It is a blanket term that is thrown around to make people seem like that have everything together. Also, it is a justification for those people that just wear yoga pants all day everyday.