OK, perhaps 'fury' is a bit strong, but I am a bit put out. You might have heard the discussion on the Today programme on Monday morning between
Paul Fox, chair of the British Wheel of Yoga (of which I am a member)
and Swami Ambikananda from the Traditional Yoga
Association. The subject of the debate was the possible introduction of
National Occupational Standards for yoga. This is not the place to go
into the rights and wrongs of this; suffice to say it has been the hot
topic in yoga forums in this country and beyond.
For many months now I have been in a closed group on Facebook just for
yoga teachers and with the aim of offering mentoring and support. It is
supposed to be a nurturing, safe environment in which you can ask, for
example, such and such happened in class and I didn't know what to do. Has anyone else experienced this?
It is not supposed to be a general discussion forum, but understandably
this BWY vs TYA topic has prompted a lot of interest. I put in my
two-penn'orth, of course, but was responded to with such venom from some
people that I have decided to leave the group completely. No great loss
to them, but a huge relief to me.
The point of this story is that it made me realise how easy it would be
to let this situation escalate into full-blown cyber-bullying. I'm
sufficiently grown-up not to want to have the last word on this
occasion, but I can quite see that once you start the ping-pong exchange
of insults and abuse, matters could quickly get out of hand.
There is a saying oft quoted in yoga circles that we cannot control what
other people do or say, we can only control our response to it. Good
advice, no?
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