My Facebook friends and fans of Marianne Wells Yoga School Facebook Page have recently viewed my support of the new look to Yoga Alliance website.  It's clean, secure, and in my opinion much more user friendly for first-time visitors to their website.The most controversial aspect of this website upgrade is their Styles of Yoga page.  In my view, a much needed improvement in simplifying yoga for their site visitors predominantly from Western countries.  

 

Previously Yoga Alliance listed hundreds of styles of yoga.  Much like taking a child into a huge candy store, first time visitors to the site were overwhelmed with all of the styles and descriptions listed.  As the list of styles grew, some inquiries into Marianne Wells Yoga School Teacher Training were very focused on the style of yoga I teach. "Yoga Alliance has a very long list...what do you teach Marianne?"  My friends from India chuckle at the branding of yoga in the West - saying "where we are from, we just call it yoga".  

 

Don't get me wrong...I support the innovation and expression of various yoga practitioners brought on in the past 30 years - and I fully respect and honor those teachers who have come before me.  As a devout yoga practitioner and teacher of yoga teachers I am helping to increase the practice of yoga in the West.  As Buddha said - "Everything changes, nothing remains without change."  But hundreds of styles?  

 

American author and avid reader of the Vedas - Henry David Thoreau wrote -"Things do not change, we do".  Many of the styles of yoga taught today are syntheses of various aspects of traditional yoga expressed in a way to appeal to Westerners - as well as providing an ability to brand the style for marketing purposes and legal exclusivity.  Even the brilliant writers of the hit ABC comedyModern Family  took a swipe at this development in an episode titled Strangers on a Treadmill where an actor is doing Troga - Treadmill Yoga.  It was ridiculously hilarious to watch.

 

What Yoga Alliance has done is to focus mostly on the yoga practiced in the West, and simplify it down to mostly Hatha Yoga, itself one of various styles of yoga evolved from one of the four main branches of traditional yoga - Raja Yoga.  Other styles of traditional yoga commonly practiced in the West from the Raja branch include Tantra and Kundalini yoga.  

 

Yoga Alliance now lists the styles in common terms easily understood by everyone - even including the category fitness yoga.  This has created a firestorm among the big names of  yoga - and yes the politics of yoga in the West with potentially millions of dollars at stake.  I'm sure the lobbying has begun.  And there are likely some additions of merit to come.  In the meantime I will continue to tell students of Marianne Wells Yoga School that I am in my 50's and will teach yoga that existed before I was born.  It's name?  Yoga.

Namaste,

Marianne

 

 

Marianne Wells has been inspiring and influencing others throughout the world for many years. A leader in the yoga community, Marianne is committed to handing down the lineage of health and happiness through her methodology based on traditional teachings adapted for today's world. Marianne is committed to not brand her "style," preferring to teach the heritage of the tree of yoga in her comprehensive curriculum.  Marianne Wells - E500 RYT, is also a member of IAYT - International Association of Yoga Therapists.

If you are ready to explore the depths and history of yoga, develop skills that will change your life and those you teach, and become certified as a yoga instructor, please register now. Marianne Wells Yoga School - a Yoga Alliance Registered School - offers yoga teacher training that has helped launch successful yoga careers and studios globally.  Currently accepting enrollment for 200 RYT teacher trainings December 2011 and 2012 at The Goddess Garden in Cahuita,Costa RIca; in January 2012 at Costa Rica Yoga Spa located in Nosara on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, and 300 hour Yoga Therapy Training February 4 -25 , 2012 at Haramara Retreat in Sayulita, Mexico.  Haramara Retreat, featured in the November 2010 issue of Yoga Journal magazine (page 81) as one of the 5 posh yoga destinations worth the splurge, is located about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta.  Sayulita is a popular destination for tourists, snow birds and surfers all looking to enjoy the Pacific surf in warm weather in a safe place.

 

Recent Posts

Good Karma Eggs from 3Minute Egg
April 23, 2012

Post Training Info Shared
April 1, 2012

Dealing with Grief Through Your Yoga Practice
January 12, 2012

Time for a change
November 4, 2011

Fortunate or Unfortunate?
June 10, 2011

Posts By Category

Inspired Philosophy (7) Teaching Yoga (1)

Archives