Yoga, by definition, meansВ вЂњto yokeвЂќВ orВ вЂњto unite.вЂќВ ItвЂ™s about connection: connecting to your breath, your body, your experience connecting to the highest version ofВ yourself, to god or the Universe and remembering that youвЂ™re part of something much bigger than yourself. I could decide right now that IвЂ™m teaching вЂњJaimis YogaвЂќ and if it works for people, isnвЂ™t that a good thing? (IвЂ™m not, FYIвЂ¦IвЂ™m now leaning towards gettingВ Harry Potter Yoga certified). IвЂ™m pretty sure this isnвЂ™t what our boy Patanjali was envisioning when he wrote The Yoga Sutras, but hey, I say, whatever works for you. They each created their own styles based off of KrishnamacharyaвЂ™s teachings, and then their students developed their own styles, and their students developed more, and somehow we ended up here in 2018 with beer yoga, goat yoga, nude yogaВ and Harry Potter YogaВ (IвЂ™m not messing with you, itвЂ™s actually a thing and it sells out). Krishnamacharya (aka the Father of Modern Yoga) whose students are the most influential global yoga teachers of our time:В B.K.S. Without going into too much detail, because IвЂ™m sure you didnвЂ™t start reading this hoping for a complete history of how yoga came to the west, letвЂ™s just say this: yoga asana as we know it has changed and evolved and maybe some would even say morphed into itвЂ™s own beast since it was brought here in the late 1890s.ДЄrguably theВ most influential figure in the development of modern yoga practice in the 20th century is T. Assuming that 40 million people have the same favorite colorВ is kinda insane, right? And if your favorite color is purple but someone tells you they prefer blue,В would you tell them theyвЂ™re wrong, that purple is the best color?ДЄs IвЂ™m typing this, I realize that yes, there probably are some people out there who would do that, but thatвЂ™s a different conversation for another day.

When you have, letвЂ™s just say, 40 million people practicing yoga, letвЂ™s be real: theyвЂ™re not all going to love the same exact style. IВ may be a little biased, being a yoga teacher and all, but still вЂ“ the fact that there are millions of people (according to the most recentВ studyВ in 2016, some 37 million people which was up from 20 million in 2012, andВ no doubt itвЂ™s up by a few more milВ in the last two years) is a good thing.В It also means about one out of ten people is practicing, which is pretty impressive. Yoga has really taken off here in the U.S., which is pretty radВ if you ask me.

Rocket yoga sequence