Elephant in the room....

[Ali]

I'm a small, thin yoga teacher and recently when I had to go on a trip, an associate took a couple of classes for me. Her body shape is different from mine. She is a lovely plump and curvy yogini who practises asana with grace and compassion and strength. A few of my students were very excited when I returned and asked them how the classes were for them - they particularly mentioned how thrilled they were to see a body which they saw as being more similar to their own, doing the asanas. One of the students even said that in the back of her mind she had always felt that she would have to be thin to do yoga properly, because all the yoga teachers she'd seen so far were thin, including me! (I should mention I live in a small town). This teacher really inspired her just with her body type. I was sad and a little shocked that my student had felt this way and wondered how I might dispel this myth. I'm so glad for this student that I was away that week and she got to experience seeing a body similar to her own in a teacher, and I will try to call on this teacher regularly! It's really important to have some varied bodies out there teaching yoga, especially when all the mags and advertising seem to show only very thin people doing yoga.
Follow your bliss, you may inspire others in ways you don't expect.

[gaileee]

Hello,

From the content of the messages on the forum, I get the idea that y'all think, that I think that I'm huge.

Nope.

I don't think that.

I'm a 5'10" healthy size 14 woman.

When I look at my Lands End Swimsuit catalog, I don't see me in there. But what I do observe is (if you ever seen one of these catalogs), pick this bathing suit type if you want to: Hide the tummy, hide the hips, minimize the bust, long torse, enhance the bust, etc. LE is the "fixit" swimsuit catalog (lol).

Y'all have a great weekend!
gaileee