September 14th, 2020

​Months ago, in the beginning of the pandemic, I was home with my kids.  Everything was being shut down, including hair salons right about when my son needed his next haircut.  We went a few weeks just watching his hair grow to where he was having to work to keep it out of the way.  One day I had had enough of his long hair and decided to cut it.  I went to Meijer to pick up some clippers, only to find that the regular clippers were sold out, so I bought some beard trimmers.  It'll work, right?  I thought I'd buzz the sides and back and then use scissors to cut the top.  I can do this, right?  It isn't that hard, it's just hair.  I went along with my plan only to find that it wasn't turning out quite like it would at the salon.  After many rounds around his head, I ended up just shaving it all the way down.  He's a boy, he could get away with it.  Five or six weeks later, his hair was growing back and he was about ready for another haircut.  This was about the time when salons were getting ready to reopen.  I said to him, "I can cut your hair if you want."  He says, "No Mom, I will wait for my appointment with Jenny.  I don't want you to screw up my hair any worse than you already did."  The advice from a 10 year old.....stick with the professional, they know what they are doing.

We can apply this advice to many services that we use.  Would you want to get into an Uber with a driver with no driver's license?  Do you want to go to the doctor with no medical training/license?  How about your teeth, would you want your teeth to be drilled by just anyone holding a drill?  Would you trust your retirement investments with just any guy? How does this apply to Yoga?  Some may think that every yoga class that pops up is with a trained instructor.  This is not always true.  There is nothing to stop an average person from standing up and saying, "I am bendy, I'm going to teach yoga" and go to a park or beach and just start doing it.  Yoga teacher trainings include multiple subjects about the tradition, not just the postures.  We have ethical guidelines and principles, anatomy, philosophy, meditation and more.  We are there to guide students safely through a practice.  We are not teaching to show off.  We are not teaching to follow the fad, we have a story of what led us to our practice.  We spend more money on education than we make.   We invest more time on continuing education than actually teaching.  Yoga instructors who are certified are invested.  We are invested in your health and wellness.  So remember the advice of the 10 year old kid, choose the instructors who are invested in the profession, it is an investment in you.