05/07/2026
If all the hype about how great yoga is leaves you feeling like you missed the joke because your experience of yoga was far from profound, well it most likely wasn’t you and was probably the class.
I bet when you went to try a yoga class you weren’t so sure about it. It felt really awkward, and you spent all your time trying to figure out how to get your body into those shapes yoga people make. You wanted to feel more relaxed, but you didn’t necessarily leave feeling like you washed off any of the stress from your life. That never-ending list of tasks that have to be done in order to survive in this modern world. You know, like the constant organising you do for your kids, running back and forth through the house getting all those chores done, doing all the school and sport runs, paying the bills, being on the phone for hours sorting your insurance, meal plans and groceries, scrubbing the dirty clothes and and and, the lists go on and on. At the end of class none of that stress and responsibility you are holding felt any easier, in fact, you stressed about these things the entire class.
The teacher might have even told you to leave your worries at the door, and you tried, really, but by the time class ended you were left thinking “I just don’t get it. I don’t get what this ‘yoga’ thing is all about.”
I’m sorry if you have never experienced even just a brief wiff of what yoga can offer you. Yoga is sold as this ‘be all and end all’ to fix your problems or the magic potion that will turn you into a perfectly zen person, but that’s not yoga, that’s wellness toxic positivity, and it’s part of why people end up walking into the wrong class for them and writing off yoga altogether.
Yoga can certainly help you deal with life’s ups and downs and give you some physical benefits, but it is a process of practice and getting to know what yoga is really all about. If you have a teacher just moving you through the motions, then no wonder you have never touched on any stress relief benefits.