Money & the Yoga Industry
Originally shared via IGTV, this Tea Talk Tuesday series breaks down various topics relating to the wellness industry — for practitioners, aspiring entrepreneurs and allies alike. Watch this episode on IGTV.
Today I want to get into the money aspects of the wellness industry, yoga specifically. So we're going to take it all the way back to the yogis who were sitting in the caves, meditating, doing their things with their disciples, through to today where we see - like I said in Episode 1 - the plethora of wellness entrepreneurs and aspiring wellness entrepreneurs that are now coming out.
Let's start by breaking down the timeline. When we look back at sort of the origins of yoga - which we know are really truly in Africa, in Egypt - and if you read books like for example, Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. In his book you hear a lot about this idea of those who are on a spiritual path looking for a teacher, looking for someone to become a disciple of. Being dedicated to spiritual teachings and practices like yoga and meditation was enough, there wasn't a requirement of a certain amount of money. Yes, you had chores and you did certain things, but there was no direct tender involved.
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So then we fast-forward and see the popularization of yoga, moving outside of India and into other cultures; moving from east to west. We also know that, Iyengar Yoga for example, was heavily influenced by the British eugenics movement and really took on more of a gymnastic, athletic type of field. The British went into Africa and colonized certain African countries. They went into India, they colonized India and not surprisingly they influenced the development of modern yoga.
Over time yoga becomes really popular in the west, and you know what we do over here in the capitalistic land, we commodify! The $4.5 billion industry that is the wellness industry we know today started with the emergence of other types of westernized styles of yoga, for example, Power Vinyasa, which I was certified in. Now Power Vinyasa is a very fast paced, push you to the very edge, squeeze out every last drop of strength, five million pushups - chatturangas - in the class, right? If you've been to one you know. Then it's hot in there, right? So people have fainted in there, you know what I'm saying?
What's not paid attention to that I have noticed, is that Black people and POC are always pushed to the edge. I noticed early on that this is not the type of yoga that most people of color need. That we need. Come on. I'm already pushed to the edge. The very last bit of strength that we have is always being squeezed out. You know, what you see in the billboards, what you see on the magazines, what you see in the yoga teachers and the yoga studios is this image. So it starts to paint the picture that this type of practice and this experience is only for people who fit into these categories.
We have to really be paying attention to who we are spending our money with and start to take those funds and withdraw them so that we can reinvest them into our own communities.
We have recognized that these systems have failed us, and then we have gone and stepped outside of those systems in order to create our own. This is right here, me, that's all, we are definitely recognized by our peers, but where does the visibility and the recognition come outside of our POC and Black focused spaces? How does that limit the opportunities that we have to financial opportunities? Right?
For example, being a Lululemon ambassador was a big deal to me, not necessarily because of being associated with the brand and the clout, I could really care less about that. What was important to me was how can I now bring resources back into my community? I think that there's a few things that we really have to pay attention to. One is we have to start divesting from these larger institutions and organizations who have just been blatant about their racism, who have been blatant about their cultural negligence, who have been blatant about posting their black square when their feed was white before and is probably white now after everything has died down.
We have to really be paying attention to who we are spending our money with and start to take those funds and withdraw them so that we can reinvest them into our own communities. I think it would be really important to start thinking about the idea of collectives and collaboratives. It's also really critical for us to unify our forces by coming together and building something as a unit.
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Another thing that's really important that we need to do is we start, we need to start to gain access through information. Are there white folks in your life that you can lean into that can provide you with this type of information? But let's be real, these contracts, government contracts, these grants, etc, by and large are going to white people. So, for non-Black non POC, we need to figure out how do we get in there and how do we extract some of this cash. We ain't seeing it. Where is it? And extracting the money again from these larger institutions to bring into our communities, to redistribute the wealth and to build equity in our communities.
Lastly, for my solo entrepreneurs, if you're really talking about starting a business, take that shit seriously, invest in yourself, invest in some type of program, invest in some type of coach, invest in some type of consulting to figure out a strategy so that you can put yourself out there in a way that you can actually generate money. Be sure uou're not just out here wasting your time, trying to figure it out by piece-mealing a bunch of different information. Put together a solid strategy and plan to execute your business ideas so that you can be successful. We all win, when you win.