The Global Yoga Business.
Posted on 04. Jan, 2012 by yogi Tobye in Philosophy, Yoga
Image via Wikipedia
The Yoga business seems like a big reflection of the world right now. And a lot of us are feeling stretched like a rubber band or, butter spread thinly over a slice of toast. As Yoga becomes more and more popular (especially hot yoga it seems) there are more studios and more competition but, yoga doesn’t do competition.
The world market is suffering. We are all aware of this no matter our latitude or, longitude. Financially things are upset in a big way and the global financial market is struggling to keep its head above water. The macrocosm and microcosm ie; Global money issues and our own.
There is a paradigm shift happening though and this is what is causing the turmoil that we’re all feeling. People are either adapting to their circumstance, cutting back on finances and realising they don’t need half of the things they used to believe they did. Or, people are struggling, getting more and more stressed and angry, wondering where the next buck is coming from so they can keep themselves in the life they’ve become accustomed to.
And for Yoga? Well, the practice has become big business. It was never designed to become big business apart from in the sense of the business of living in an enlightened way. Getting people into big studios and charging them large amounts of money seems to have become normal. Students were happy to big money because to a certain extent, it was a cool thing to be doing. Some students to be fair though, just realised that how yoga made them feel was worth the expense.
Now, for a lot of those studios, things have become tight. The majority of students are struggling to pay for their regular classes and studios have started to bring down prices which is a great thing. Some studios even charge a fixed monthly amount for unlimited classes. Working on the idea that most students will go to an average of two classes per week, the studio can work out a set amount. This means the dedicated student who will go to six or, seven classes a week, is on a winner in every way.
But, at its very core, Its fundamental principle. Yoga has nothing to do with material wealth and finance and the studios out there that are only looking for financial success, reaping the benefits of a global trend, will not last so long. The smaller studios offering classes to a handful of dedicated students, with the intention of helping those that come to class, those will be the ones that will make it through the hardship and weather the storm.
Because most of what we are seeing in the west, in a good few of the big studios, isn’t yoga. It’s a fitness craze designed around the postures of Hatha yoga. At best it is Bhoga, the sensual version of yoga that is all about rejoicing in life. We might feel better and less stressed but, this is only the start of the work. The real path is further over the horizon and a lot harder than we can ever imagine. I wonder if, one day yoga will evolve back to its original form of just Guru and student?
