Guest author, Brook McCarthy, is a part-time yoga teacher in Syd­ney, Aus­tralia. Brook also runs a mar­ket­ing con­sul­tancy that helps busi­nesses in the health and well­be­ing sec­tor improve their com­mu­ni­ca­tions online.

Cul­ti­vat­ing com­mu­nity can be as sim­ple as a friendly yoga class, a shared meal or an inspir­ing work­shop. This can sow seeds towards cre­at­ing a soul-cen­tered kin­ship of yogis who take their com­mu­nity “off the mat” and beyond the stu­dio walls.

Community Begins with the Teacher

For almost a year, I attended a yoga stu­dio in the heart of Syd­ney, Aus­tralia. It was a busy school, packed with work­ers from nearby build­ings, and had a “buzz” of the town out­side. I attended sev­eral classes a week and was often taught by a par­tic­u­lar teacher who, time and again, asked for my name. The first dozen times, I didn’t mind.

Another evening after class, I heard a teacher invite sev­eral stu­dents to the pub for a drink after class. I wasn’t offended by a yoga teacher hav­ing a drink with his stu­dents (Who knows? They may even have been drink­ing soda water.), it was the inclusive/exclusive infer­ence that left me feel­ing on the out­side.

My present yoga teacher cul­ti­vates com­mu­nity in each and every class he teaches. Not only does he have a gift for remem­ber­ing names and the phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions of each stu­dent, he gen­tly uses our names to ver­bally adjust stu­dents, which also works to intro­duce us to each other.

Creating Community — One Class at a Time

Each class is made up of a col­lec­tion of indi­vid­u­als who bring with them the emo­tions and pre­oc­cu­pa­tions of their par­tic­u­lar day. I’ve wit­nessed yoga teach­ers change stu­dents’ dif­fer­ing ener­gies, unit­ing the class towards com­mon goals such as mind­ful­ness.

Rather than cre­ate chal­lenges for the more expe­ri­enced yogis in the room, try to teach each class as if all your stu­dents are begin­ners — make your instruc­tions acces­si­ble, your tone wel­com­ing, and your spirit encour­ag­ing. A sense of fun and joy­ful­ness is a pow­er­ful teach­ing tool and helps stu­dents lighten up and smile at their neigh­bors. Ask stu­dents to intro­duce them­selves to the peo­ple next to them in small classes. And lead stu­dents in a Namaste to each other at the end of class.

Humor is most effec­tive at help­ing stu­dents get out of their heads and onto their mats. Crack a joke and see peo­ple relax — most effec­tive after a core strength ses­sion. One of my favorite teach­ers has a gift for crack­ing jokes at oppor­tune moments. Although these jokes can be a bit off-colour at times, they are accom­pa­nied by a charm­ing, open smile; my teacher eas­ily dis­arms new stu­dents of their con­cerns that all yoga teach­ers are seri­ous and holier-than-thou.

Taking the Classroom Outside

Encour­ag­ing stu­dents to linger longer can start with a cup of tea, extend to a meal, and end up with peo­ple vol­un­teer­ing in their com­mu­nity — it’s all in the spirit of inclu­sion.

One suc­cess­ful Syd­ney stu­dio does this with grace as the yoga teacher boils a ket­tle in the recep­tion room and offers stu­dents who linger after class a cup of tea. A meal at a local restau­rant after a yoga work­shop or the com­ple­tion of a course also encour­ages stu­dents to relax and get to know one another out­side of class. Depend­ing on your locale and the stu­dents’ means, either bun­dle the meal into the price of the work­shop or let every­one know it’s “Dutch treat.” Some stu­dios spon­sor annual or sea­sonal group meals, and ask stu­dents who want to par­tic­i­pate to con­tribute some­thing, such as a favorite home-cooked dish, to share with their teach­ers and fel­low yogis.

For stu­dents who are fre­quent vis­i­tors to your yoga stu­dio, offer­ing a vol­un­teer pro­gram can help build a sense of com­mu­nity, and not only among the vol­un­teers. One yoga city stu­dio I have attended has a “karma yoga” pro­gram offer­ing free yoga classes in exchange for clean­ing duties. I began vol­un­teer­ing at another stu­dio giv­ing adjust­ments and cor­rec­tions dur­ing Sat­ur­day classes. I was already an expe­ri­enced yoga stu­dent at that time and much appre­cia­tive of the per­sonal instruc­tions given to me by the yoga teacher. The stu­dio also ben­e­fited from hav­ing an extra set of eyes and hands dur­ing busy classes.

Widening Your Community

Groups tend to be judged by their actions before peo­ple lis­ten to their words. Per­haps the sin­gle most pow­er­ful thing yogis can do to encour­age new peo­ple to expe­ri­ence the ben­e­fits of yoga is to become more involved in com­mu­nity ser­vices. This also allows stu­dents to expe­ri­ence karma yoga, the yoga of action.

Samadhi Yoga in Syd­ney has a for­mal “Yoga in the Com­mu­nity” pro­gram, and offers 16 heav­ily-dis­counted classes per week to any­one who wishes to attend. This orga­ni­za­tion also runs pro­grams in con­junc­tion with drug and alco­hol reha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­ters, at-risk child care ser­vices, clin­ics for patients with AID and juve­nile jus­tice units. While this type of com­mit­ment may be some years off for a fledg­ling stu­dio, a “clean the park” pic­nic day, a free weekly class after school to local teenagers, or a visit to an aged care home is more eas­ily man­age­able.

Each yoga stu­dio has the poten­tial to become a hub of activ­ity for the com­mu­nity beyond its walls. When we gather together with the hope of reach­ing self-real­iza­tion, we are work­ing toward rec­og­niz­ing the uni­ver­sal­ity of all beings, and achiev­ing peace and free­dom not only for our­selves, but also our world­wide com­mu­nity. Tak­ing our yoga prac­tice “off the mat” and into the world.

— Brook McCarthy, Yog­a­Reach, Syd­ney, Aus­tralia