Yoke Yoga

Yoke Yoga Community Agreements
Community Guidelines Based on Yogic Ethics
Scope of Practice
Diversity of Viewpoints
Accessibility Considerations for Content Creation
Spiritual and Land Acknowledgement and Reparations
Power and Transparency
Yoke Yoga Teacher Ethical Commitments

As a Yoke Yoga Creator, you agree to the following Community Agreements:

Yoke Yoga supports a broad, accessible and inclusive approach to yoga. 

We believe yoga is a tool and can be used to heal or harm. We aim to share it accessibly to support wellbeing.

We support yoga for self reflection, personal growth and development.

We heal in community and Community is central to our individual and collective growth. 

We aim to surface and reduce the barriers to yoga practice.

We aim to share whole person wellness, expand the definition and experience of wellness.

We aim to expand access to those who see themselves as yoga practitioners and teachers, be trauma informed and center mutual care.

We center all experiences including disabled, neurodivergent, emo, all bodies, minds and hearts. 

We dismantle perfectionism knowing you and we will not do all of this perfectly but we will care and try to do our best. 

We aim to not make assumptions or generalizations about one another but to ask with curiosity. 

To learn with and from each other and encourage collaboration and engagement.

We use inclusive, gender inclusive, non ableist or appropriative language. For example we do use: ya’ll, folks, community. 

We don’t use ladies or men (no need to gender folks) or words like tribe. 

I agree to participate in Yoke Yoga’s community and commitment of fostering an environment welcoming and attentive to people of color, queer and trans people, disabled people, low-income people, people of various body sizes, and other underrepresented and underestimated communities. Please work to include and not make assumptions about who is in the community. 

This involves developing an awareness and acting towards justice, equity, diversity inclusion and belonging regarding advocacy, addressing and interrupting how racism, ableism, fatphobia, homophobia, queerphobia, anti-LGBTQIA+, transphobia, classism, anti blackness, caste, colonialism, misogyny or other oppressions may show up in the yoga space. We are a gender expansive space and use gender inclusive language and do not make generalizations about binary gender roles–such as male and/or female nor use terms like “ladies” or “you guys” which can be non inclusive for many folks and teach gender neutral and expansive cuing.

Community Guidelines Based on Yogic Ethics 

Ahimsa – non-harm and Satya – truth

The Culture we create together at Yoke Yoga is very important. We are always aiming to see the best in one another and to learn and grow. We implement the philosophy Maya Angelou gives  us in this quote:“Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.”

Creating Culture with Care: We may say or do things that cause activation or harm. When that happens and when it does it might become a focus at that time. We will speak up to address harm with love and care and we will always orient to working things out with communication. We honor our own activation and triggers and do our best as a community to call in harm like ableism, fatphobia, and misgendering when it occurs. We do this with care and towards learning and growth for all. 

If you come across a share on Yoke Yoga that needs to be reported, please email a member of the team immediately (Linda@Yoke Yogabewell.com), so that we can address/ remove the content.

Scope of Practice

We will remain within our scope of practice knowing that we share yoga tools and that we are not diagnosing or treating disease. 

Diversity of Viewpoints

We also know that as Creators we do not have all the answers. We have a diversity of perspectives – including not knowing! 

Accessibility Considerations for Content Creation

Spiritual and Land Acknowledgement and Reparations

We honor the generations of indigenous peoples connected to native land, and whenever possible, commit to land acknowledgments and paying respects to the many diverse indigenous peoples on whose land many of us inhabit as well as going beyond acknowledgment to reparations and healing. Native-land.ca

We acknowledge the roots of yoga and the harms caused by generations of colonial oppression. We also acknowledge the erasure of South Asians in yoga, Ayurveda and wellness culture, a move that makes it easier to appropriate and exploit cultural wisdom. We center South Asian experience, culture and voices while holding intersectional awareness of Black, Brown and others experience with these wisdom traditions. We stand against caste oppression and acknowledge the harm that has been done inside vedic traditions including yoga. We seek to engage yoga and other tools of liberation for the ending of all oppressions and seek caste abolition. 

Power and Transparency

We know that some communities have dynamics of power and abuse, and recognize that in a context of colonial trauma some spiritual teachers have histories of abuse, misconduct and cult behavior. We hold space for harm created by these behaviors and encourage transparency to speak up and change cultures of secrecy to those of transparency. We hold care and sensitivity towards those in our community sharing from personal experience. We also keep in mind that yoga is not a replacement for therapy, and represents the tenets of the yamas, not oversharing or dumping trauma in our community. We also hold space for being the one’s breaking cycles – healing vicious cycles and creating virtuous ones.

Safety is about autonomy and so we kindly encourage you to please do what you need to do to take care of you and for you to encourage your students to do the same with the utmost compassion and care. 

Yoke Yoga Teacher Ethical Commitments 

At Yoke Yoga  we recognize the enormous responsibility of being yoga teachers, mentors and guides. We recognize the sensitive nature of the student-teacher relationship, especially the hierarchical power structures that advantage the teacher. Therefore, we believe it's the responsibility of each teacher to ensure a respectful, caring and protected environment for students to grow physically, mentally and spiritually. Often, students, family, and friends mirror the qualities and integrity a teacher brings to their life and classes. So, in addition to the traditional ethics outlined in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, we add these guidelines to maintain congruence with the complexities of our role – so that we may embody yoga’s roots and reflect ahimsa, care and bring uplift in the world. We can come back to being in community and accountability in our relationships as well as to ourselves and who we truly are. 

Professional Ethical Practices 

  1. As Yoga teachers, we understand that teaching yoga is an ennobling endeavor and consistently acknowledge the sacredness of our work.
  2. We respect the long line of honorable teachers from South Asia and beyond, who have codified and developed this tradition, are committed to our own sadhana, (personal practice,) and continually recommit to practicing yoga as a way of life and we adhere to and aspire to practice Patanjali’s eightfold path.
  3. We dedicate ourselves to thorough and continuing study and practice of yoga and to continuing education throughout our career as a Yoga teacher is part of keeping the mind free and clear and information fresh, particularly in the branch or type of Yoga we teach to others. By expanding our knowledge, we bring a higher value and better quality education to our students.
  4. We view our knowledge, services and professional works as being for the benefit of those we serve and vow not to use them to manipulate or secure unfair personal advantage. Maintaining constant professionalism in all matters, both official and personal, is a goal we strive for as Yoga teachers.
  5. Yoga teachers, especially those teaching Hatha-Yoga, will abstain from giving medical advice, or advice that could be interpreted as such, unless they have the necessary medical qualifications.
  6. We hold ourselves accountable and make amends when mistakes are made, which empowers others to do the same.
  7. We acknowledge that plant medicine is part of deeply connected spirituality and wisdom traditions. And that colonization has negatively impacted our ability to connect with and integrate these sacred practices. As yoga teachers are committed to managing our personal lives in a healthy fashion and to seek appropriate assistance for our own personal problems or conflicts. We understand that there can be times when honoring addiction and recovery space is important. To bring awareness and work to be in healing from harmful tendencies. In that case, they will do everything in their power to be in integrity, including full accountability to a support group. (This covers substance abuse and does not apply for those who use substances as part of their spiritual, religious, mental health or other personal practice.)
  8. Representing ourselves accurately in our resumes, articles, and other interactions make us stay honest and relaxed within ourselves and toward others. We do not market to students who are in a paid program, nor promote our own personal programs within our colleagues programs, unless specifically invited to do so. 
  9. Seek sangha. To seek out and engage in collegial relationships, recognizing that isolation can lead to a loss of perspective and judgment. To establish and maintain appropriate professional relationship boundaries as we do so.
  10. To cultivate an attitude of humanity in our teaching, we dedicate our work to something greater than ourselves.
  11. Due regard is given to other Yoga teachers, even when their tradition varies from our own – and we speak with kindness toward other studios, teachers, and schools in the yoga world.

Student Relationships

  1. Yoga teachers are committed to promoting the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of their students. Yoga teachers never abuse their authority – we don’t pretend to know more or have all the answers. We encourage choice and agency, encourage our students to find their answers within themselves and assist them in answering their own questions.
  2. Students are never coerced, and treated with utmost respect and are never sexually harassed or discriminated against according to race, religion, sexual orientation, physical abilities, body size, gender identity, caste or otherwise. Yoga teachers are open to instructing all students irrespective race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and social or financial status.
  3. It is necessary for students to feel safe and that they have a choice in how their practice experience happens. So we offer choice, never touch without consent and always ask for multiple forms of consent – explaining the adjustment as well as asking for verbal consent each time before we adjust or put our hands on a student or offer advice or guidance.
  4. Medical advice isn’t given under any circumstance and we aid students by directing them to a proper expert when needed.
  5. Yoga teachers particularly embrace the ideal of truthfulness in dealing with students and others.Yoga teachers will never force their own opinions on students but appreciate the fact that every individual is entitled to their worldview, ideas, and beliefs.
  6. We show sensitive regard for the moral, social and religious standards of students and groups. We avoid imposing our beliefs on others, although we may express them when appropriate in the yoga class.
  7. Every effort is made to work with each individual student, but if communication is hindered by major differences in opinion, the Yoga teacher will gently dissolve the relationship and provide other options for the student to continue their education.
  8. We recognize the special nature of the teacher-student relationship and hold its purpose to be supporting and facilitating the student’s healing and personal development. We also acknowledge that each relationship is nuanced and that there may not always be simple solutions. We can learn a lot from listening and communicating with each other as we seek to respect and honor relationships.
  9. We recognize the trust placed by the student in the teacher and the power that gives the teacher. While acknowledging the complexity of relationships, we avoid exploiting the trust and dependency of students. Because of the power dynamic inherent with student-teacher/mentor mentors do not date students. We avoid dual relationships with students (e.g. business, close personal or sexual relationships) as we acknowledge that they can easily impair our professional judgment, compromise the integrity of our instructions and/or become a means for our own gain. We never engage in harassment, abusive words, actions, or exploitative coercion of students or former students.
  10. All forms of sexual behavior with students are unethical, even when a student invites or consents to involvement in such behavior. Sexual behavior is defined as, but not limited to all forms of overt and covert seductive speech, gestures, and behaviors in addition to any physical contact of a sexual nature. All forms of sexual harassment are unethical. Harassment is defined as, but not limited to, repeated comments, gestures, or physical contact of a sexual nature.
  11. We recognize that the teacher-student relationship involves a power imbalance, the residual effects of which remain after the student is no longer studying with the teacher. Therefore, we suggest mindfulness and caution if you choose to enter into a personal relationship with a former student.  It is not appropriate to engage in sexual relations with a former student for at least 1 year after the end of the student-teacher relationship.
  12. We do not abandon or neglect students. If we are unable, or unwilling for appropriate reasons, to provide professional help or continue a professional relationship, every reasonable effort is made to arrange for continuation of instruction with another teacher.
  13. We know that our students depend on us to a great degree, so we remain as consistent and positive with our attitudes, as well as support their spiritual growth with encouragement and unconditional love.

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Although every effort was made to cover all ethical principles, the above list may not cover everything completely. These Ethical Guidelines are not exhaustive, and the fact that a given conduct is not specifically covered by these Guidelines does not say anything about the ethical or unethical nature of that conduct. Yoga teachers always endeavor to respect and, to the best of their abilities, adhere to the traditional yogic code of conduct as well as to the law current in their country or state. If there is ever a question or doubt in your mind on how to handle a situation or deal with certain issues coming up personally, always remember your sibling Yoga teachers are here to support you. Go to someone you trust, who you feel is living in ethics. Ask for help when you need it – we are here. These guidelines are here to support us all as we practice yoga as a pathway for personal and collective liberation and frame our work through the ethical foundations of yoga – particularly yoga ethics.

Our vision for this space is to live into, image and create a yoga practice community of mutual support and collective liberation.

We do our best to uplift all beings. These guidelines are a work in progress and living document and always open to improvement, update and change.