Inside Yoga 161 (14/3/2016)

A yoga teacher in Calgary, Canada, teaches a class under the title “rage yoga”, which according to the teacher, Lyndsey Istace, started after she went through a difficult relationship breakup and felt so angry.

The class looks like a yoga class you would expect to see until she encourages the students to do exercises like “screaming and give up on life”, and basically swear and curse as much as you want.
Letting go and feeling free is very much a part of yoga, and I can understand the origin of this class but personally I would not encourage a class of shouting and cursing, as we can go to a sports field for that? This is not what yoga is designed to be and be about.
The other element that strikes a discord is that Istace, in her attempt to get away from “yoga” environments, teaches in pubs and bars, which is fine as finding venues can be difficult, but in her classes participants can drink alcoholic drinks during the class!
Beside that the fact that yoga is about quietening the mind – from its chatter to its rage, we are not meant to drink anything during practice unless we are gasping, let alone drinking intoxicants such as beer and wine as you go along as part of some social event.
As for the anger, shouting and letting it all out, these are all important emotions, and in yoga we learn to understand what they are and to work with them, guiding our emotions to a place of calm, clarity and understanding, and thereby ridding ourselves of unwanted thoughts and feelings.
But there are ways of doing this, and Istace’s type of class is not yoga in the truest sense.
Yes, participants may enjoy and feel better for these rage classes, but when one considers we are looking for stillness, it is worth considering that this is type of class is a distraction and a gimmick which detracts from the practice of yoga as it was intended to be practiced – and has been practised successfully for the past several thousands of years.
Istace says she found normal yoga classes too serene, but it doesn’t mean you have to go to the pub with your mat and shout all about it – and the call that yoga.
Call me a purist, and I am, but this type of class is missing the point.
See for yourself, see link, http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/calgary-woman-teaching-rage-yoga-after-breakup-1.2815210
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