Tattooing Yogini

Do you ever notice that when we’re considering fair pricing for yoga, we often only think of students? Listen, I’m in favor of making yoga accessible for all people and financial situations. As a matter of fact, making yoga accessible is a passion of mine. I enjoy leading Karma classes, offering discounted classes, and donation-based classes, but I won’t undermine the practice by “low-balling” the industry or myself. MINIMUM WAGE The federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour. If I set my classes for $10/hour, I am making less than minimum wage. HOW DO YOU FIGURE? Yoga teachers do not come to class and make up classes on the fly. We take time to consider our students’ needs and create rough drafts of our classes, practice them, edit them, practice them, and then come up with a final draft that we bring to class. This process can take an hour or more and this is just for a general public class. If I were to charge minimum wage for the general classes I lead, I’d actually be charging students $...

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately & I am nothing short of amazed at where I am now. It’s so interesting to me that I have been into nutrition, fitness, and yoga for most of my adult life. It hasn’t always been healthy, but these interests have always been in my life. (above: a delicious lunch I had recently) When I was a teen and throughout my young adult life, I struggled with an eating disorder and later around age 30, I added a daily wine habit to that. It’s interesting that I used to count the calories in grapes, but ignored the calories in the bottle of wine I consumed on a regular basis back then. Obviously my restriction had more to do with self-destruction than anything else. (above 2014, when I was obsessed with doing crow pose in weird places) Later, I got into a fitness MLM and while I enjoyed the community, it ultimately exacerbated my disordered eating, leading to digestive issues, and overwork of certain muscles in my body from some of the programs I was following. Ar...

When I first started practicing yoga back in 2001, I had no mat, no teacher except a book I found at my friend’s mom’s house, and no social media influencers, workshops, Zoom or the like. It was simply my hardwood floor, me and my curiosity. Which brings me to the topic of yoga gear. What do you need to practice yoga? •Truthfully, you only need yourself• That said, from my experience, the hardwood floor or itchy grass if you’re outside, can be uncomfortable. If you have knee issues, hard or uneven surfaces can even make practice unbearable. In these cases, a mat or rug can be helpful. YOGA MATS • Mats are generally made with rubber or a synthetic material and while there are varying degrees of quality & effectiveness, they tend to create a less slippery foundation for your practice. • That said, most of these are not biodegradable and end up in landfills when they are worn out. • They must be cleaned often to prevent bacterial and fungal buildup, even when they say they are resista...

Since my last post, my beloved dog, Ami, succumbed to cancer. It devastated me. I’m pretty good at compartmentalizing, but the loss of that precious angel dog hurt my heart. I’m not over it. A photo of him brings me to tears. I still look for him in his spot before tossing a toy for Milo. I still expect to see him waiting with wagging tail when I wake up in the morning, but he has gone on before me and I must wait to see him again. His last day, he gingerly made his way to the backyard. The sun hung high in the blue sky as he found a place to rest in the tall green grass. I’m so grateful that he was able to do that. He always loved being outside. I could say more, but I’m going to leave it at that. It’s too painful to talk about. He was my best buddy and I will miss him forever. The children and I planted a magnolia tree in the backyard for him. ••• April has brought things to fruition, even as I still grapple with the pain of loss. That’s the way life is, isn’t it? Death is not the en...