🧘♀️ Personal attachment in Yoga practice can hinder your progress.
Your Yoga practice should be Yoga-centered, not person-centered.
When we begin our yoga journey at a yoga studio or center, we naturally develop a bond with our yoga teacher. They guide us correctly, help us correct our postures, explain the finer details of each asana, and also share their benefits with us. Their teaching style, their tone, their energy, and their perspective inspire us, and gradually we form a mental and emotional connection with them. This connection makes our practice more enjoyable and engaging.
However, sometimes situations change. Due to personal or unavoidable reasons, a yoga teacher or instructor may have to stop conducting classes or may not be able to continue their service at the center. At such times, many students feel disappointed and disheartened. They think, “My favorite teacher is no longer here, so what’s the point?” and eventually stop attending the sessions.
This is a mistake that many people make unknowingly. Because the foundation of Yoga lies within us, not outside. As long as we depend on our teacher to sustain our practice, our Yoga remains person-centered, not Yoga-centered.
Yoga does not depend on the teacher, studio, friends, or timing — it depends on our own discipline and self-dedication. Yoga is the dialogue between body and mind, the balance between breath and thought, and the union with one’s own inner self.
The teacher only shows us the path — but walking on it, experiencing it, and realizing the truth within is our own responsibility. Therefore, even if the teacher changes, the timing changes, or the place changes — our practice should continue without interruption. The joy, health, and peace we experience after Yoga come primarily from our own consistent practice, not merely from the teacher’s efforts.
When our practice becomes attached to a particular person — when we say, “My favorite teacher is not there, so I won’t go” — we forget the true essence of Yoga. Yoga means self-discipline; it should not depend on anyone else. Under any circumstance, our practice must continue — that is true Yoga-centered dedication.
Regular Yoga practice makes the body flexible, strengthens the muscles, improves circulation, reduces stress, calms the mind, and promotes good sleep. But if we stop practicing, all these benefits gradually diminish. Yoga is like medicine — it must be taken every day to maintain its effect. Hence, it doesn’t matter who is teaching — what matters is that I am learning, I am practicing, and I am growing. The teacher may change, but my dedication as a practitioner should never change. Yoga depends not on the presence of the teacher but on the commitment of the seeker.
Yoga is a path of freedom — it does not bind us to anyone but liberates us from dependence. When we say, “My partner or my friend is not coming, so I will also not go for Yoga,” we are limiting ourselves. But the one who says, “Even if I am alone, I will continue my practice,” is the true yogi.
Yoga teaches us to rise above joy and sorrow, gain and loss, praise and criticism. Similarly, it teaches us to continue our practice beyond who is present or absent — this is true Yoga-centered devotion.
If we wish to experience long-term health, peace, and inner fulfillment through Yoga, we must remain consistent in our practice. We should keep aside a fixed time every day for ourselves — a time when it is just us and our breath. The Yoga teacher is a guide, but the spirit of practice rests entirely in our own hands.
Respecting a teacher’s personal decision to step away from the center, and still continuing our own practice sincerely — this is true Yoga-centeredness.
“Your Yoga practice should be Yoga-centered, not person-centered.”
Because even if the teacher changes, Yoga does not change — only our dedication must remain unshaken.
Dr. Yogeshwar Sanap, M.D.
Yoga Master | Therapeutic Yoga Consultant
Saaryog Yoga Therapy Center and Yoga Studio, Pune