An epic battle of Lululemon see-through-pants proportions is brewing in the yoga world. The topic: the yoga selfie. And it’s gearing up to get ugly—in a very pretty backbend on a tropical beach with white sand and azure shores kind of way.
On one side you have the selfie haters: men and women who say that the popular social media pictures of scantily clad yoginis doing advanced poses are ego-driven and in direct opposition to yogic principles.
On the other, you have the selfie lovers, who argue that yoga selfies inspire countless people to come to their mats, making the ancient practice more fun and relatable.
The selfie haters got to make a big jab in last week when a popular blog post equated yoga selfies to porn. The selfie lovers have no jabs; instead they have consistency, posting thousands of pictures and garnering hundreds of thousands of likes each day.
So, since there’s a battle in the community we all love, we’re obligated to take sides, right? Wrong.
What Yoga and Yoga Selfies Teach Us
While I respect the passion that drives people to debate topics like yoga selfies, I disagree with the entire debate. I’m more of a live and let live type of gal. And here we reach an important point: tolerance. More specifically, respecting people’s rights to their own preferences.
I work for YogaTrail, a company that came into creation specifically because different preferences exist in the yoga community.
We created a platform where students can review teachers and studios, helping other yogis know if they should expect a more spiritual class or a physical workout, a cramped space or lots of room.
And that matters. Because whether you want a spiritual awakening or killer abs, I want you to find a class you’ll love. I want this because I want you to come to the mat as often as possible. And I suspect everyone reading this feels the same way.
We know that yoga makes the world a better place and the more people that practice, the greater hope there is for mankind’s future.
So let’s get more people practicing. Let’s do it by showing our unity, not our differences. Let’s do it by living the message, and not by picking apart other people’s choices. Let’s do it by being yogis, not selfie lovers or selfie haters.
