23/06/2026
I've been thinking a lot lately...
..about what it means to walk this path with integrity.
The reality is that our studio is struggling. Like many small independent businesses, we're working incredibly hard to keep the doors open. And when people hear that, the advice often comes quickly.
"You need to advertise more."
"You need to make it more fitness focused."
"You need better social media."
And inevitably someone sends me the Instagram account of a beautiful young woman practising yoga in very little clothing.
Because s*x sells.
It always has.
You can sell almost anything when wrapped in beauty, youth and aspiration.
But yoga is too precious to me to reduce it to that.
For more than twenty years I've watched yoga become increasingly commercialised in the West. A practice designed to turn us inward has become something we often perform outwardly. The teachers with the largest audiences are not always the most experienced, knowledgeable or wise. Often they are simply the most visible.
And I understand why.
Beauty attracts attention.
Aesthetic attracts attention.
A perfectly curated feed attracts attention.
But I find myself asking different questions.
What about wisdom?
What about knowledge?
What about the teacher who has spent decades quietly studying, practising, serving and learning?
What about experience?
The irony is that I'm not standing outside this system pointing fingers.
I'm in it too.
I've run the ads.
I've learned how to use AI.
I've spent hours creating content.
I've offered promotions and introductory offers.
I've tried to understand what works online.
Because I want this little studio to survive.
I want it to be here for the people who need it.
I want there to be spaces left where yoga can be more than a workout.
The challenge is not whether to market yoga. The challenge is how to market it without losing its soul.
Many of the teachers I respect most have never mastered social media. They write newsletters. They send thoughtful emails. They teach the same small group of students year after year. They devote themselves to practice rather than performance.
And yet, increasingly, it feels as though the digital world
