What are yoga teachers really like? Do they never eat chocolate or swear? Find me at https://www.eqyoga.co.uk/E2S2 Transcript**Vicky** (00:00:10) - Hi. Welcome to all Things Yoga with Vicky. A podcast about all things yoga. Hello and welcome. So we're going to have a little think about busting myths about yoga teachers. The yoga teachers. They are a strange breed in their lycra. Bend in this way and that. But. Not all yoga teachers are your stereotypical Western yoga teacher, and there are a lot of myths about yoga teachers, such as they all wear Lycra. I certainly don't. But we are going to think about just a few of these things that actually could be quite,, shall we say, detrimental to people attending yoga classes. So the first thing I'm going to say is all yoga teachers are not really skinny and really fit. You do not have to be really skinny and really fit to teach yoga. That's not saying some aren't, because yes, quite a few are, but there are a lot that aren't. Yoga isn't necessarily for people who have a level of fitness, a level of flexibility, a certain body shape.**Vicky** (00:01:21) - Yoga is for everybody, and this is something which is really key. When we look on Instagram and other social media, there is a large contingent of things that represent yoga that aren't actually representing yoga. They are representing an interpretation of yoga, doing a headstand in your shorts and bikini and so on. Now this is really key as it puts people off coming to classes. It makes people think that yoga is exclusively for a certain type of person, a certain body shape, a certain skill or flexibility level or fitness level. That is not the case. So number one myth busted. Not all yoga teachers are super fit, super bendy and super slim. Okay, so let's move on to myth number two. Myth number two is that yoga teachers are all vegan. Now, interestingly, some yoga teachers are vegan and there are certain yogic principles to live by. One of these is ahimsa, which is non harm. Now ahimsa can extend to not eating animal products or using animal products, if that is your interpretation of it.**Vicky** (00:02:39) - But a lot of yoga teachers do not follow any specific diet. There is nothing to say that yoga teachers have to be vegan or vegetarian. Personally, I'm pescatarian and I have been for many years, but that was way before I was a yoga teacher, so perhaps we can stop thinking about our yoga teachers being these super healthy beings because quite frankly, I love ice cream. I have a pizza on Fridays. You know, there's nothing wrong with this. This is a human thing to do. Yoga teachers are human. Now, the next myth we're going to bust is the fact that yoga teachers never, ever get injuries. Now, this is quite an interesting one. I quite often go to the same shop, and the people in there who work in there kind of know me because I'm in my yoga gear. They know I'm a yoga teacher. And the other week one of the guys who works in there said, oh I have a really bad back are there any yoga stretches I can do for it now? I don't ever recommend things like that, but I recommended him to a book that he might want to look at because I don't prescribe.**Vicky** (00:03:53) - I'm not medically qualified, but it's a book that I used when I had a herniated disc. And I said, look, from my personal experience, this book could be really useful. You might want to look at this. And he said, but you're a yoga teacher. How could you have had a bad back? Now, this fascinated me., yoga teachers are not superhuman. We get injuries, my wrists hurt. Sometimes if I kneel on my knees for too long, they hurt. We have the same issues as everybody else, as a yoga teacher. And in fact, sometimes too much of certain things in yoga can actually cause injuries, which is why we need to be quite careful. But it's that idea of yoga teachers being completely and utterly superhuman. We are not Terminators. As yoga teachers, we get injuries, trust me. Now, the last thing I'm going to talk about as a yoga teacher, and this is the one that I absolutely love. My mum says this to me sometimes.**Vicky** (00:04:54) - Like, how come you're not calm and collected all the time? Now it makes me chuckle. The idea that yoga teachers, all yoga teachers, just walk around in this super Zen like state unaffected by traffic jams or, you know, something annoys them. Trust me, yoga teachers do get annoyed. Yoga teachers get sweary and angry sometimes. Not necessarily in yoga classes. But like I say, yoga teachers are human, so we don't all walk around in a Zen like state. I mean, okay, sometimes we do some yoga teachers may do. If those yoga teachers out there,, walk around in the Zen like state all the time. It must be very nice. But from my personal point of view, the yoga teachers I know and also myself, we are not. Zen like beans 100% of the time. So I hope this has given you an insight into the world of the truth of yoga teachers busting those myths., if there's...
