Sloppy Journalism? TALK BACK!
Did you see the article appearing recently in the New York Times Magazine discussing the dangers of yoga? Below is my reply to the editor about this misleading and narrow-minded article. Though it won't likely be printed, I wanted to share this with those of you who might have concerns about what you read:
Thank you for your provocative and informative article about the dangers of yoga, “All Bent out of Shape”, appearing in the January 8th magazine. As a full time yoga teacher and studio owner dedicated to helping students heal from and prevent injury, I appreciated the cautionary tales from students and teachers who suffered at the hands of overzealous and undereducated instructors.
However, I’d like to point out one important distinction missing from your article; as one might expect in a practice that has developed over a period of thousands of years, schools of yoga vary widely. In fact, though they often use the same names for yoga postures, the approach in teaching and practicing these postures can be as different as night and day. William Broad focuses his article on a particular approach to Iyengar Yoga, one school of many, and the practices and experiences he describes bear no resemblance to the gentle, awareness and safety based approach that so many teachers and practitioners enjoy today.
The dangers he discusses are real but also very much understood by a large number of teachers from a wide range of traditions. If teacher Glenn Black received a lukewarm reception to his talk about the dangers of yoga, I would suspect it was due not to the fact that “people don’t like to hear that” but to the fact that most of those in attendance wouldn’t dream of using the kinds of tactics that were so injurious to him.
I was saddened by both the author and his subjects’ inability to distinguish between the many types of yoga available today but also a bit amused by it. Black’s advice to avoid yoga sounded as inane as advising people to stop walking altogether simply because striding unaware over a bed of hot coals can cause a burn. How about taking the time to look at where you are treading instead?
Kate S. Pousont
Director, Shelburne Falls Yoga
1 Deerfield Ave. Shelburne Falls MA 01370
413-475-2441
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