Yoga Is Dangerous!!
mark tanaka
Maybe that’s an extreme statement. But again hear me out. Yoga is a powerful practice. No matter what form of yoga you do, it has deeply transformative effects. Both the physical and mental yogas can significantly alter your pre-existing patterning and habits. This is inherently disruptive in nature and we need to come to reality around that. Although change is a great thing for most of us, it would be wise for us to realize that it can also really rock the boat.
1. Yoga can really change your sensibility around things and reorganize your priorities. Reconnecting with your body, and changing the somatic landscape of your system can activate awareness, feelings and change your orientation of self and everything around you drastically. As an extreme example, I’ve known countless students who left their jobs, broke up their marriages and went through complete life transformations. If you’re ready and up for this, great. But be clear that this is very likely a possible side effect.
2. Yogic meditation practices and philosophies practiced in a traditional context is for and can be Ego shattering. Depending on where we are at in our mental health, our proclivity towards dissociative states and our ego strength and other defensive strategies we use to cope with life that keeps our world together so we can function; jumping into a superficial deep dive (really studying it but not in a formal context with guidance over a long period of gradual integration) and adopting these views can have very harmful effects on some people. Some people don’t need to destroy their ego sense, they need to develop a healthy sense of their ego first.
I’d like to see more in depth dialogue around these topics and work towards create safer containers for people’s transformative process as well as clear warnings around potentially disruptive side-effects of practice and a more nuanced understanding of how and when to properly practice and apply the views and practices of yoga.