The wellness industry is an absolute beast worth $4.5 trillion! And wellness offerings such as yoga are known to provide so many positive benefits such as reducing stress, anxiety, and improving mental health.
But what about the dark side of yoga culture?
I’m sharing my experience - as a woman of color - teaching yoga in the industry. Here’s what I’ve discovered:
Spiritual bypassing
Toxic positivity
Racial micro aggressions
Fat shaming
Abuse of women in yoga
Cultural appropriation
When I first began to teach yoga, what struck me the most was the complete lack of diversity at the yoga studios. All I saw was primarily middle class to upper class, white women.
I stumbled upon Anusha Wijeyakumar in my search online to explore toxicity in yoga.
‘…yoga has become a hotbed for the spread of racism and COVID conspiracy theories — and it's fundamentally at odds with the teachings of yoga’. (— Anusha Wijeyakumar)
Instead of taking action - in dismantling injustice and racism - mainstream yoga spaces often rely on burning sage and saying ‘namaste’ as a good enough solution to achieving peace and equality.
This is when I discovered spiritual bypassing
If you’re new to spiritual bypassing. It usually sounds something like this:
Peace and love will solve everything!
Let’s focus on love and light, ‘Namaste’, and pray as a solution to the worlds problems
We are one! Stop focusing on the bad stuff, you’re only making it worse
Spiritual Bypassing is a term coined by John Welwood (psychotherapist and Author). He describes it as:
Spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep personal, emotional ‘unfinished business,’ to shore up a shaky sense of self, or to belittle basic needs, feelings, and developmental tasks. (the goal of these practices being: enlightenment).
— John Welwood
As a woman of color, I’ve personally experienced racial micro-aggressions and spiritual bypassing in the wellness industry but I never felt safe to even talk about it because it was usually met with some form of spiritual bypassing as a response.
Spiritual bypassing protects white people from acknowledging or practicing empathy towards racism.
It’s essentially ignoring the elephant in the room and then guilting people for bringing up the elephant in the room.
As a yoga teacher, unfortunately I’ve experienced racial micro-aggressions and spiritual bypassing which at times have made me not want to teach anymore or have any involvement with yoga culture.
My first experience with racial micro-aggressions and spiritual bypassing was when I hired a white male business coach and yoga teacher (Brett Moran | The Bodhi App) for some marketing guidance for my women’s wellness business.
Early into hiring him for support, there was a racial micro-aggression which left me speechless.
He was reviewing my website bio which explains that I’m mixed race: Indigenous, Black, and German. I share this with everyone because the yoga industry lacks diversity. He stared at my skin for an uncomfortable amount of time and then told me ‘You don’t seem like a Black woman’ and laughed.
It was hurtful. I wanted to crawl inside a hole and disappear. As a mixed-race woman, I don’t look like one ethnicity (and I’ve been reminded of this my whole life).
The life of a mixed-race woman is constant questions such as:
‘What are you?,’
‘You don’t look Indigenous’,
‘You don’t look Black’, etc.
This is nothing new for me. I was afraid for most of my life to share my mixed ethnicity because I associated it with being bullied and judged as a young girl. It took courage to share my background on my website bio and in one moment, he managed to tear it down.
I went home from that meeting knowing I had to address what had happened but also feeling absolute panic over the thought of talking about it. He was a well-known yoga teacher who catered to a white community. How could I have a real conversation about real issues with someone like this?
I tried to address his uncomfortable comment and this is when the spiritual bypassing and racial micro-aggressions came out in force:
He didn't see it as important to say my ethnicity in my bio and that ‘…it was causing a separation vs a connection’. I don’t need it in my marketing.
‘Why do we need to tell people this?’
He also repeated - even though I explained why it was hurtful - ‘You don't seem like a Black woman’.
‘I wasn’t trying to trigger your ego or identity’
He described the situation as ‘darkness’ and that he was ‘bringing in the light’
Again, I tried to express to him how his comments are harmful to people of color in the wellness industry. He responded with more spiritual bypassing and racial micro aggressions:
‘I think life is way too beautiful to STAY STUCK, especially when we have our health, our youth, and we live on a tropical island with a ton of coconuts’
‘I do not believe identity is important, especially when people identify with a pain story.’
‘If more people identified with the truth, then yes I agree with you, that identity is crucial. There would be a lot more freedom, less hate and division in the world and we would rise up faster. But people do not identify with the truth, a majority of people cling to the thoughts and stories inside their head.’
‘I believe our true identity is beyond thinking, God, love, light, pure spirit, whatever you want to label it. Not the colour of our skin, our stories, the shape of our bodies, or our sexuality.’
‘Obviously, I understand people have had terrible times and been hurt in the past. I'm just baffled why they carry this story around for so long. Surely they would want to be free right!’
'I understand that this might sound like a spiritual bypass to some people. But I would question whether those people truly get it. Are they truly connected to the source or the false sense of self!’
‘For me, the identity you clung to is now creating separation like your email request clearly displays. But hey, it's all stories and we both see the world through different lenses. I honour and respect the light in you, but life is too short to entertain egos.’
He ended his email with: ‘I now think it's best we end the work here. I do not feel integral working with you’.
So, this has been my experience as a yoga teacher in an extremely toxic culture. And this is happening to both students and teachers all the time. The harmful behaviour is masked with toxic positivity.
How much racism, racial micro-aggressions, and spiritual bypassing are taking place under the guise of yoga?
This experience awakened me to an ugly truth that I can’t un-see: the wellness industry is really toxic.
I’ve felt excluded and marginalized in yoga as both a teacher and a participant. For example, I spent years attending classes that were only white women. It was an isolating feeling. I longed to see more representation but feared even mentioning how this made me feel.
As an Indigenous yoga teacher in Canada, I long for more opportunity to teach in a white dominated industry.
Bottom Line
Why do so many people in the wellness community become so defensive on the topic of racism and cultural appropriation?
Why don’t we allow the marginalized to truly shine and express themselves in this industry?
Why aren’t the lived experiences of BIPoC inspiring the wellness community to change their behaviors?
The answer to all of these questions is the same: FRAGILITY. It’s hard to look at yourself critically, and sometimes sharing power feels like losing power. The knee-jerk reaction is to push back.
Black people and people of color are excluded and under-represented in yoga. Different ages and body types are not represented enough in yoga.
Look around at your next yoga class (or online), how many white people are in the room? What is the general age and gender? Does it feel diverse?
‘White privilege includes the ability to comfortably be yourself in every situation; you NEVER have to worry that your skin color will separate you from others.’ (— Dianne Bondy, article on Yoga International)
Let’s have these conversations more. Although they can feel uncomfortable, spiritual bypassing is getting us nowhere.
Joss
Joss Frank
Hi! I’m Joss Frank, founder of Wild Womb. I understand how womb and body healing ignites when you look within for guidance because I self-healed from my painful periods, depression, anxiety, sexual assault, emotional and physical abuse… after years of failed efforts to feel better about myself. My failed efforts led to a revelation that true healing comes from within and it requires loving community.
Today, as a Yoga Therapist in my practicum, I help people with womb and body healing so they can reclaim their feminine power, LOVE their sacred feminine bodies, and feel more confident.
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