Every once in a while I'll receive an email that starts off with something like, "I know this is a stretch because you probably don't even own a tv but I was wondering if...' It always cracks me up, especially because I used to be the same way. I remember my jaw falling to the ground with a thud when my yoga teacher confessed she drank wine and ate red meat. "Does that make me a bad yogi?" she laughed.
If it does, then a confession: I'm a bad yoga person, too. And when considering all the things I do that are "bad", I think you might be one, also. Ruh roh!
1. You might be a bad yogi if you're not fluent in Sanskrit. Sometimes people send in their problems for the Ask a Yoga Question series and list their most difficult pose in sanskrit. I'm not gonna lie- unless it's a pose I teach all the time, the first thing I do is google the heck out of it because I'm not fluent in Sanskrit.
2. You might be a bad yogi if Madonna helps you remember. The only way I can recall the words to the Ashtanga opening chant is to do it the way Madonna sang it on her Ray of Light album.
3. You might be a bad yogi if you do poses incorrectly. There have been days when this blog hasn't seen a new post. It's not because I forgot, it's because when I went to edit the photo, I realized my alignment was crap and I was doing it wrong. (Yet another reason I encourage people to take pics of your practice.)
4. You might be a bad yogi if you eat meat. Need I say more?
5. You might be a bad yogi if you're not the most patient person. You might remember the time I went to a bad yoga class and almost lost my mind.
6. You might be a bad yogi if you've ever been motivated to go to class because you got a new pair of yoga pants. Guilty as charged!
7. You might be a bad yogi if you think yoga isn't a cure-all. Like when you have a sore throat and someone tells you maybe your throat chakra is blocked and you say (silently, to yourself), "or maybe my body's fighting off some germs and I just have a sore throat."
8. You might be a bad yogi if you say to yourself, "Man, my butt looks good in these yoga pants."
9. You might be a bad yogi if you don't give a crap what anyone else is wearing to class because nothing's getting you to change out of your worn in favorite sweats.
10. You might be a bad yogi if you can't stand flowery yoga talk. How exactly does one breathe through their toes, anyway?
11. You might be a bad yogi if you fall asleep during savanasa on the reg.
12. You might be a bad yogi if you secretly like when your yoga teacher screws up and says extended side angle when you know you're in trikonasana. It means she's human.
Let's talk So what's the consensus? Are you a "bad" yogi too? What else makes you a "bag" yogi?
Related More confessions.
PS I just learned that there's an original bad yogi! Guess we're all a little "bad" :)