Kathryn Anne Flynn
Sep 6, 2018 · 1 min read

Hi Jennifer — I’m writing as I’m spending some time thinking about whether there is any responsibility of a yoga student. It stems from the train of thought about a sense of peership amidst students and teachers alike as a responsible approach to teaching, and a reconciliation of the inexperience of many yoga teachers. (And not shaming them for that or feeling like they need to live in a cave for 20 years before they can stand up and teaching someone Warrior 1.)

Is it time that we chart a new course for conversation about “yoga teacher ethics” and determine a deeper sense of living as a yogi so that people see themselves as a yogi first and someone who facilitates yoga classes second? Yoga Teacher is the only way that people identify as true yogis, it seems, and many teachers have identity anxiety if they leave teaching.

This may be part of the reason that so many yogis gravitate toward Buddhism, like yourself, for its individual ethics first.

My thoughts are a bit meandering, but I wonder if Ethical Guidelines for Teachers are necessary but a tad lofty when we consider the average Yoga Teacher is Barb in IT who teaches “Stretch & Unwind” on Thursdays in the break room?