I am honored to present for you another guest post this week, written by my good friend Cheryl Breuer. Cheryl is a certified Curvy Yoga teacher and the owner of Verbena Yoga & Wellness LLC.
When I started teaching yoga classes for bigger-bodied people, I got some pushback from the yoga community. “Yoga is for everyone!” they said. “People of all shapes and sizes are welcome in my classes.”
I also got some pushback from yogis themselves. “I am a big person and I resent that you think I need a ‘special’ class, separate from other yogis.”
The thing is, they’re right. Yoga is for everyone. In an ideal world, a typical class in a yoga studio would reflect the same diversity of shape, size, color, ability and gender as I see outside the studio, but that isn’t the case. I became a yoga teacher because I wanted to do something about it.
Over and over, when I’m talking to people about yoga, I hear variations on the same theme. “Yoga isn’t for me because _________.” The top reasons people give me are that they are too old, too inflexible, or too fat to practice yoga.
The way yoga is marketed in this country it’s no wonder many people feel that yoga is an exclusive club that they aren’t invited to join.
- Page through any popular yoga magazine and you will see primarily images of young, white, very thin, very flexible, cisgender female yogis.
- Lululemon, one of the largest producers of yoga apparel, has stated publicly that it has no interest in creating yoga clothing in sizes larger than a women’s 12.
- The standard yoga mat is less than 6 feet long and only 24 inches wide—not exactly curvy-friendly.
- Not all yoga teachers know how to offer adjustments and alternatives for bigger bodies.
We also live in a fat-phobic society. Our culture is set on the notion that fat is the devil. Fat people get labeled lazy, incompetent, and ugly. Unfortunately, yoga teachers and studios are not free from this bias.
I have heard firsthand stories of people being turned away from yoga classes because they are “too fat.” I’ve been in a yoga class where the teacher made a self-deprecating comment about her “big legs” while teaching, and others where teachers chirped about getting ready for “bikini season.” This is the opposite of body-positivity.
To be body-positive means embracing that all bodies are good, and recognizing that what works for one person may not work for another.
Yoga is not about sculpting your body into some arbitrary physical ideal. It’s about learning to love and accept yourself as you are, living with greater kindness and compassion, and letting go of judgment and other negative energies that can hold us back from experiencing true happiness and peace.
Sri Tirumali Krishnamacharya is often referred to as the father of modern yoga and considered the creator of Vinyasa—linking breath with movement. He is quoted as having said, “If you can breathe, you can do yoga.” Now that’s body-positive!
Anna Guest-Jelley started Curvy Yoga because she wanted to create a space where more bigger-bodied people felt comfortable practicing yoga.
As a certified Curvy Yoga teacher, I learned from Anna how to create classes that are body-positive, accessible and fun. Curvy Yoga is about moving and breathing and feeling good in the body you have. People of all shapes and sizes are welcome to attend.
Curvy Yoga could be for you if you want to:
- Practice yoga in a small, encouraging environment with other fuller-bodied yogis
- Escape the “bikini-body” rhetoric. Curvy Yoga is not about losing weight or how you should look. You are awesome just the way you are!
- Learn simple pose modifications to accommodate a larger chest, belly or butt
- Replace negative self-talk with self-affirming mantras
- Take up as much space as you darn well please!
- Build a foundation for a home yoga practice or learn the basics so you can rock any yoga class, anywhere!
Sound like it’s for you? I’m teaching Intro to Curvy Yoga at Bliss Flow Yoga starting September 14. Classes meet Sundays from 2-3:15 p.m. for six weeks. The series will begin with a Curvy Yoga Launch Party on August 28.
About Cheryl:
Cheryl thinks that you are amazing, just as you are.
Cheryl helps people find happiness by learning to let go of negative self-talk and practicing greater compassion toward themselves and others. She brings body-positivity, an upbeat attitude and her eclectic taste in music to her classes. Cheryl especially enjoys seeing beginners connect with the practice of yoga.
Cheryl is a Curvy Yoga-certified and 200-hour registered yoga teacher.
