 In this video I'm going to tell you why I quit being a professional yoga instructor after 10 years and I'm going to talk about some things which generally yoga people tend to avoid talking about but they are important so stay tuned. Hey critical thinkers and welcome to another critical thinking vlog. As always I invite you to grab your coffee and let's drink some and talk some together sitting in this wonderful area and as I already said today we're going to talk about my yoga career how I used to be a professional yoga instructor I studied yoga full-time I went to India and you know traveled to ushrams spoke with monks I did the whole thing and eventually after doing it for 10 years I quit being a yoga instructor and these days I avoid teaching yoga as much as I can and so we're going to get to the details of how I got into yoga and what bugged me in yoga from the get-go and also what eventually I discovered are the critical missing aspects in yoga how critical thinking is usually or many times missing there how I realized eventually that what I learned and how that led me to quit teaching yoga all together so let's grab a sip of coffee and get into it. So I feel it's important to say from the very beginning that I was never like a passionate yoga guy like you know there's some yogis who are just like they're all about yoga and you know that's all they talk about and that's that's all they do and for me it was never like that I heavily invested into yoga I studied it a lot and as I said you know I even went to India did that whole spiritual trip but aside from that for me spirituality used to be much more interesting and important than yoga per se and I was very much into meditation but that naturally led me to yoga it wasn't until I moved and started living in a in a martial arts slash spiritual slash yoga school full time and that's a long story how I got there and etc but the video is not about that but in this video we'll focus on the yoga so yoga was part of that that's that spiritual school's curriculum and basically alongside training martial arts full time and meditating full time I also was doing yoga full time so at least three times per week but usually more I was taught by various different instructors there used to be like there would be like events happening in that spiritual school as well like other yoga instructors would come down and and so I got to get to know yoga quite a bit but it wasn't until I decided to become a full time professional martial arts instructor it was the thing I already told to my martial arts instructor and we sat down once and when I told him that I want to do I want to teach martial arts full time he led me to the idea and he told me that I should also become a yoga instructor because running a martial arts school it may be difficult to live from it to make a profit from it full time because you get only a certain amount of students and then he suggested that if I would also teach yoga then naturally I would get different students and some would go to one class and the other but usually different people do you know yoga and meditation and I said why not and I'm a type of person who if I do something I do it you know like really devoted me so I definitely took it seriously I started reading more books I started doing more asanas and and so I really got into it and and did my best to become a good yoga instructor during those three years while I lived in that school that's spiritual mid-martial arts yoga school uh some things about yoga were bugging me already some of the yoga instructors were super flexible and I realized that they wouldn't relate with me like my so my lower back was round you know I couldn't I did not have the flexibility in my in my pelvic structure to to push the tailbone forward in order to you know sit straight in a forward bend or in a in a meditation position and so I needed like to work on my lower back flexibility like a lot before I could do that but that's but my teachers didn't tell me that they were like they were pushing me like oh you should just straighten your back and I was like I can't you know I literally can't it doesn't work like like I need to for I would feel at that moment that I need to stretch my lower back from this position just sitting here or in some other position because that was like the primary place where I needed to stretch and I couldn't get to the place where they wanted me to be at but they wouldn't tell me like oh let's first work on your back let's first work on your lower back let's fix you up so you would be able to do the the other postures correctly they were like no straighten your back I was like you know fuck you I'm like I can't do this like how I physically literally cannot do this so so how can you ask me to do that and tell me this is you're doing it incorrectly hell yeah because I'm I'm not capable of doing it correctly but why don't you guide me through the process of getting to the point where I can do it correctly and again my my extremely flexible instructors most of them just couldn't relate me they wanted they wouldn't understand so so that shows you know how how poor knowledge they had of the basic understanding of you know the the anatomy of the body of yoga and also working with the person where he's at and obviously yeah there were postures where you know like this is the level one posture this is the level two posture this is level three but at many times I couldn't even do like the level one posture but but that was the only option I was given so so so that was already troubling for me also when I was troubled by which informed me later as a yoga instructor too was that some postures where I felt they were they were bad for me like I had initially had knee surgery because of my martial arts training and my knees were bad like for a while because of my bad training and in some yoga postures my knee didn't feel good but then in the yoga class the instructor would ask us all to do the same posture and I would be like you know I was doing the posture which everyone was doing and I would feel like this is bad for my knee but then everybody is doing it and you know you would kind of be sometimes suggested like yeah you know if it's too much for you don't do it but it's but but it's hard you know and and you know you could blame me but but also too I think many people know that it's difficult when you're when you're in a group everybody's doing it and you just kind of feel a pain in your knee you're like I guess I can you know live through maybe this is supposed to be happening so you just do the thing and now I look back and I realize some of the postures were just not good for me but that's again a downside of yoga which now I like to bring attention to and to say that there there's some actually instructors even say that that yoga shouldn't be shouldn't be a group practice for everyone it's only for like healthy people if you're like you have a specific amount of flexibility already you're healthy you don't have any injuries okay go to a group yoga but most situations are not like that most situations you know people come to a class like a whole group class and and they do whatever everyone else does and even like it's a beginner's class rarely there's individuality rarely a rare instructor in my experience in my observation would would say okay give me a detailed description of your injuries and your background and you know let's do the tests like what a good fitness instructor does you know they test your limitations they test where your your weaknesses are and they make sure that you work on them first before you move up to the next exercises but so so basically the story that I want to point out so far is that I was noticing that something is off I did not like that I'm getting postures which I don't feel are good for me that I'm telling I'm being told to do things which are not really working for me but but you know I trusted my instructors I thought you know they know what they're doing their yoga instructors they've been doing it for decades you know they know the deal so I just need to listen and eventually so yeah I went to India that I don't think that's a significant story to tell here it was more like a spiritual trip and funny thing is too I actually so now this is an important part I actually started teaching yoga already in that spiritual school so basically I was doing yoga for like a year and a half like two years I guess yeah let's say two years and I was already like prepping myself to become a yoga instructor but mostly by myself I did not get like specific to terrain and and specific lessons for being a yoga instructor I was just kind of like here's a list of answers you need to know and some some contraindications but basically it was about reading books which were outdated you know written mostly by spiritual teachers who knew little or nothing about science and they give indications and counterindications of what the postures do and what you shouldn't do like really poor explanations now that I look back most of it was pseudoscience most of this was guessing some of the suggestions were just uh were just like ridiculous there there was no truth in that so I'll give you a simple example but it's the one I remember best because it's just so ridiculous in one of the yoga books I was studying to become a yoga instructor it was written that the Chakrasana the triangle pose which you're seeing right now you know because of editing magic so in that posture it was said that the side of your hips like it this posture is good for decreasing the amount of fat in in your hip and it's like it's nonsense again because if I'm wrong write me in the comments explain me the science of it but in reality from the science that I can see from the science that I got to know later on order to decrease fat in your body it's all about you know cardio it's all about burning burning calories and and yoga that's the video I'm gonna make about that's one of the next videos I'm gonna make about it usually like unless it's like hardcore power yoga it's usually it does not raise your heart level enough where only after a certain amount of heart rate your body starts to burn calories like extra calories and that's where the bird that's where the fat starts to go away eventually you know well there's all that science but the thing is unless you reach that heart level you're not burning any calories you're not burning any fat so you're standing in this Chakrasana in that posture it's completely static your heart rate is really slow because you're breathing slow and you know just standing there and for some reason I was taught through that book and I was then guided to teach that to my students like oh this is gonna burn your fat from your hip like what the fuck you know so but there's a I don't remember most of the cases right now because it's been a while but but there were so many things which were ridiculous the not tested by science which are provided as answers and I was suggested to to trust those answers and to pass them on I wasn't a really good critical thinker at the day but but I intuitively I felt that something is off and already like after those two years of just practicing yoga and doing some self-studies oh it was like kind of a I was guided into it like I taught initially like the first 10 minutes like the first part of the class and then the real instructor would teach it in the last part the Shavasana then the middle part and eventually I was given soon enough I was given to teach the whole class looking back that's such a bad fucking decision you know why because I had no fucking clue what I was doing you know I knew no science background this is like and this is the thing this is really and a really responsible thing to teach yoga you could potentially mess up the bodies and the spines of people and and you could make injuries or or bring up all the injuries like there's so much that's at stake but clearly my instructors were not knowledgeable enough to consider that and they thought you know yoga is all safe and good I actually made a specific video about that you can check it out it's called why yoga can destroy your body thing and so I talked in detail more about that about science behind it but my instructors clearly did not know that and and they were like yeah just go ahead and teach you know based on your limited knowledge and and no understanding of how the body really works or any science of it so that was such a poor decision on their behalf but again I was 19 I was okay well it was a 20 21 critical thinking was not a big deal in that community and so I did you know I thought but somewhere at the back of my mind I could feel like man I don't really know that much you know I don't understand this really well and so I felt uncomfortable I felt I had doubts and hesitations but my instructors were like no no you're fine you know go and teach and they kept reinforcing that so eventually I passed my certification based on that school to teach yoga by answering the list of questions that that I was asked to answer by basically doing my own studies and so eventually I came back to my country I opened up my martial arts school successfully and I was teaching yoga as well and again I felt hesitations I felt doubts and they were because I felt like I don't really know what I'm doing I met you know a whole number of yoga instructors through my yoga career and I realized I wasn't that far off from like the general typical yogi most of the yogis that I I met that that were teaching yoga they knew pretty much the same amount of as I did sometimes I knew more than them especially like you know the historical side and whatnot like the spiritual side of it but but basically I wasn't that far behind from them and they weren't that far ahead and we were we all had our yoga groups we all were teaching and we had so many different occasions to so no that's a really serious thing to consider but again I can't blame them as much as I I don't think it would be fair to blame me because the real people to blame here initially are the instructors the certification systems which which guided us to believe that it's enough and again one of the people that I worked with she passed the month one month one of the famous yoga courses and and that was it and she was like go and teach and I and you know again she knew she knew less than I did she was taught a bunch of now I can see luckily a thing that I admire about her is that eventually she went on to become a fitness coach you learn the science of it and actually that's one of the inspirations which which helped me realize you know I was right I had great reasons to have doubts and have hesitations about teaching because when I started to learn about the science from her just naturally talking to her about the science of yoga or the fitness I was like holy crap there's so much that I don't know and there's so much I should know and there's so much stuff which is important to know for a yoga instructor but nobody talks about that at least in my circle or in most in most yoga cases that I saw and but again so so I have great admiration for her and I think she did the right thing she she started teaching yoga in a scientific way based on her fitness experience and and that's awesome but most yoga instructors don't get to that point well yes okay there are some courses which or some schools are starting it's becoming start I think it's starting to become a bit of a trend like more schools are are addressing that but but I even like doing research about it I searched for books which would talk about it I found very few if any and when I was looking for a yoga course online it was a few years ago but I was looking for a yoga course online which is science-based I think I found one in New York but there's hundreds if not thousands of those courses which said nothing about the science so it's really like a dark wall now coming back to my story so again I had that doubt for a for a while I kept teaching and I was surprised I was like you know people are coming to my yoga class like I had a big group and and people love my yoga I was invited to teach other at other places and I was well known as a yoga instructor in my area was even like teaching once like a yoga class for like a hundred people I was in there playing that game and I was doing it well and to dream I was surprised I was like why are these people coming to my class you know I I'm not I don't think I'm that good but again I started comparing myself with other yoga instructors around and and I realized you know I'm not that much worse or than them in some years that was better I think I think a lot of it is about personality I was putting some focus on the meditation aspect of yoga and the relaxation aspect and the mindset and I think people loved it you know I created a great atmosphere I think that's why people kept coming back but in my mind I was like I didn't feel so great and so I was surprised people were coming but when I started to learn about the science of the body I started to feel worse and worse about teaching it now I had direct confirmation that I don't really know what I'm doing but I was also kind of in a in a vicious circle because people were coming to my classes they loved it and I was like well I I feel like I shouldn't do this but they would encourage me like no you're good you're great and and so it was hard to let go of that that position and I did my best to to learn the science behind me but at same time the reason I spread it off telling you the story that I wasn't entirely that passionate about yoga there were so many other things I was working on I was running a professional martial arts school martial arts where at the forefront I started running my youtube channel so I was doing so much I didn't feel like I had the space to to learn the science behind it but that's where I came to realization you know what if I'm not devoting to doing the hard work to know the real legit science behind it and I'm not reading the new articles and the new science reveals about yoga if I'm not keeping myself up to date then I'm not living up to the highest standards I do not I should not have any permission to teach crazy enough that type of permission that type of demand was never presented to me which I think it should be that's the thing I keep claiming but that's that's the thing I started to to position myself in the more interested about the science the more I started to push myself away from from teaching yoga that wasn't like the last time I taught eventually I closed my my martial arts school I closed that that school and actually there's another video I'm making about that right right right after this one but eventually I closed my school and that was a great way that that was a relief for me because I was like okay that gives me a way out of the yoga role because it was difficult to say no to people I'm not gonna teach anymore they wanted me to teach despite my you know my lacking knowledge I guess and I guess I came to a conclusion like now I guess I'll better teach by really telling people like I would tell my students look I'm not us I'm not a medical doctor yoga is not great for everyone if you have really real injuries you know don't go to me don't don't don't stay with me you know go go to physiotherapist go to fitness person so I started to make those kind of safety measures and I was really honest with my group and I would I would tell them sometimes like this is this is all I know I would start completely avoiding postures which were questionable or had at some sense of danger in them so I started putting up safety measures but I didn't you know go on the route to to push myself to the next level as a yoga instructor so so when I closed my school I felt like good riddance you know now I won't need to teach yoga but then what did happen afterwards was actually just a year ago when I moved to this wonderful city of Vilnius Lithuania capital I was invited by a friend to teach a yoga class here and I was hesitant but she really she was really asking me for it she was like she told me that she used to do yoga with me back in in my school and she was like your yoga was the best thing ever like I felt nothing like it and she kept encouraging me I was like well okay I can try and then I taught a few classes like one class per week for like a month and I just observed myself and I was like I can't do this you know I'm like if I'm not again putting the hard work I don't have the right to teach I don't feel good doing this eventually I said to the people I already have like a few people and again they really loved it and I said you know what sorry I can't do this I'm not gonna teach anymore and they were like holy crap we just fell in love with your yoga and we like being in and now you're not teaching and I was like yeah sorry that I even started it so I felt bad about that but I felt like that was the right choice to do and I came to a strong conclusion that I should avoid teaching yoga at all costs and and there's always temptations because you know I have the experience I have some knowledge and I get still once in a while like invitations like oh come to this like recently I was mighty to to this kind of a retreat and the guy said my friend who's leading that retreat was like yeah you could teach some yoga and I was like I was tempted because you know I can teach a yoga class you know I did it for like hundreds of times I have the experience I have the basic knowledge but I was like you know what actually no as far as much as I'm tempted to do that I'm not gonna teach it because again I have that standard if I'm not putting my entire focus on it and if I'm not like living up to the highest standard I I should not and I do not give myself a mission to do it