I signed up to start yoga teacher training in October of 2018. I was so excited. I had a plan that would allow me to have a little semblance of my pre-children personality and give me an outlet. I knew I wouldn’t make any money, but at that time, money was not the point.
Back then, I used to attend a church called James River Church in Ozark, MO. This is a mega-church, and being raised Catholic in a very small congregation, this was an eye opening place, for so many reasons. I hadn’t been to a Catholic church in quite a while, so when I started going to James River, I was intrigued. That was, until that week I signed up for teacher training, so was the week that the lead pastor told me I was going to hell for doing yoga.
His sermon was simple. If you practiced yoga, taught yoga or any form of this type of movement, you were doomed to hell. He went on to say that meditation allowed evil into your body, that dream catchers were the devils work and so much more. I left heartbroken, vulnerable, and just pissed off. Sadly, I trusted this place to be a comfort to me, and to help with my walk with The Lord. Not to be banished to hell because I needed an outlet and I had chosen yoga. This sermon made national news, and if you want to read more about it you can:
https://www.newsweek.com/missouri-megachurch-pastor-condemns-yoga-calls-hinduism-demonic-1212793
I never stepped foot in that church again, and after I cried for 2 days I decided to own my own truth. I do not practice, move or teach anything demonic. I don’t promote or pretend to understand the Hindu faith. I admit that it probably makes me a hypocrite that I don’t, and I know that some who do practice this faith feel that western yoga teachers and studios are making a mockery of it. For that, I’m sorry. I do not have that intention. Sometimes I wish what yoga teachers teach would be called something else but it isn’t. I have taken what I have learned from 3 separate teacher training certificates (600 hours) and molded it into something I am proud of and can use to help people learn to help themselves.
Recently I asked someone to consider illustrating my new children’s book. It is 20 different breathing exercises for children. I have worked so hard on it, and I wrote it to be very benign (or so I thought). I do not want to offend anyone with a hand gesture or bring up thoughts of previous trauma with this book. I simply want to teach other kids the techniques I use in my children’s classes at school. After reading the book and considering it, she turned down my offer to work on the book. It did in fact go against her faith. I respect her decision, and quite frankly, her bravery to tell me so. I will have to find another way to find someone to illustrate my book.
I hope when I finish the book that you will buy a copy. I hope you will tell others to buy a copy. I can already tell that selling the book, marketing the book and actually getting it into the hands of little readers is going to be difficult. Until I release it, I hope you will continue to read my posts about the journey and how it got me here.
Duls