I am a novice when it comes
to yoga. It is not my preferred
exercise, as I enjoy classes that give me an adrenaline rush and release of endorphins. Occasionally, I will attend a
yoga class, for stretching, and relaxation.
The mood is a striking contrast to heart pumping classes and energetic
instructors, to the quiet nurturing of the yoga instructor.
Yoga instructors appear to
be gentle souls who bring tranquility and peace to their classes. I would assume their personal lives mirror
their demeanor of quiet calmness. My due
diligence for this blog finds one instructor who says Yoga is an artistic expression of divine
beauty that reconnects you to your self and invites more love, joy, and fun
into your life. Yoga is defined as a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline which originated in ancient India. This lovely woman appeared to be the epitome of
what anyone would seek in a yoga instructor.
When I recently learned of a
local yoga instructor training facility who certified a woman named M as a
yoga instructor, my former admiration for the controlled placidity of the
practice was profoundly questioned.
M is a bold adulterer who has
brazenly flaunted her affairs. Perhaps
her need to “feel important” is the reason for the undignified behavior – even
attending her lover’s divorce proceeding, caressing his thighs in view of the
judge. Presently, M still chases
self-worth as she touts her minimal yoga credentials as “graduate school”, despite
the lack of any undergraduate education.
M is volatile and explodes
into unwarranted displays of temper. Her fuse is short, and without
restraint. Digging her nails into the
neck of a child is within her realm of discipline. Her verbal cruelty emitted from the depths of
offensiveness as she informed her six year old stepdaughter that her mother’s
new baby would be born blind and deaf.
M lacks the selflessness of
a mother, disregarding her daughters by moving her married boyfriend into her
home the day after she told their father to leave. She further severed her maternal bond by dropping
the last name they shared, preferring the name of her new husband, livid that
his ex- wife still shared that surname with her children.
M complied with gusto, with
dishonesty and without conscience to her new husband’s ploys for punishing his
ex-wife for divorcing him, never reflecting his sole focus was on harming his
ex-wife’s relationship with her children, instead of on M, his new wife.
M’s marriage ended as soon
as her step-children were independent.
Her husband’s new girlfriend replaced her in every aspect of her former
life. Lacking humility M proclaims, “We
are still man and wife, although we live in different places,” and loyally complies
with his obsessive harassment of his first wife, utilizing their children as
destructive pawns…to this day.
This is the woman who is now
teaching yoga. Although she’s earned the
qualifications of the physicality of yoga, my concerns are what lies beneath
the surface of a woman who is supposed to be teaching spiritual discipline,
when her own soul has been contaminated by her degrading life choices. How can she serve as a role model and contribute
a positive and motivating influence to others seeking peace, when the root of
her being is corroded?
We are all taught from a
very young age, not to judge a book by its cover. We are taught to assume that there is
goodness beneath the surface. But what
happens when the surface is shrouded in the appearance of kindness? One would then implement another lesson
learned in childhood of not talking to strangers…or maybe not taking their yoga
class either….
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