I believe marketing for yoga is doing the industry a disservice.
It isn’t serving me and it DEFINITELY isn’t serving you. Where did it begin? Was it when P90X made yoga an exercise? When marketing firms only use young, blonde, skinny women in campaigns? Or was it when Carrie Bradshaw would leave classes early in her Manolo Blahniks? Who’s to say, but at some point, there came a disconnect between the people who actually practice and perceived practioners.
Where is the yoga campaign with the retired population that comes no less than 3 times a week?
Where is the campaign for the people who keep trying studio after studio looking for their yoga home?
Where is the campaign for the travelers? The real travelers where their practice is a place to be still and quiet for 75 minutes?
Where are the campaigns with the therapy dog, the people who practice in stretchy jeans, the people who have pain, the people who occasionally cry?
Where are the campaigns for the people who come in looking for relief?
I’m in the studio 6 days a week. And I rarely see the effortless person practicing. The people I see are the people listed above. The people that create an actual community where everyone has advice or the occasional garden produce to share. The community that signs get well soon cards and makes the extra effort to wish someone a happy birthday. The community that makes sure the new person knows where the bathroom is or grabs them a block off the shelf.
I see yoga as the community where everyone makes the effort not only for themselves, but for others. Can it be a singular experience? Yes. But the studio isn’t singular. The studio is a collection creating support for each singular experience. I can’t do it alone. And I would be infinitely less if I didn’t have you to do it with.
Stay tuned for more on this. I’m only just beginning.
~Carmen