Can We Think Our Way Out Of Perfection? A Conversation with Dr. Shyam Ranganathan
Yoga classes are great at telling us how to move our bodies, but not so much on how to think.
So this week’s podcast has a guest who will do just that. Enter Dr. Shyam Ranganathan to the chat to talk to us about how we think about perfection in the yoga space, why we have trouble as leaders being less than perfect, and what yoga philosophy actually says in regards to figuring out what is “right”.
This is such a great conversation, and Dr. Ranganathan will have you listening, and rewinding again and again.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
*When you are faced with someone who is speaking a truth that you don’t like, take a few moments to reflect what part of you is having trouble reconciling what they have to say. One of the most potent things we can do as yoga practitioners is to get very good at figuring out what things we need to work on in ourselves, and what things simply are not a part of our own belief system.
*Virtue ethics is a Western mode of thinking that asks us to start with the “right person”, where we choose a person who we deem to be “right” and then we do what they say. Yoga, conversely, asks us to start with the idea of right doing and then you spend a lifetime practicing the essential traits of right doing–as you see them. Not as someone else sees them.
*The customer is always right is a difficult thing to utilize when you are teaching something, because the customer always doesn’t know what they need. So take that into consideration when you are making marketing plans for your business. You’ve got to know and understand what it is that yoga is really about, so that once customers come in the door you can teach them.
*”Yoga is subversive”, and the beginning of this journey is dissatisfaction. So once you get people in the door you can share with them what we are actually doing here. This, to me, was one of the most freeing things Dr. Ranganathan said–we can market and run businesses effectively within the scope and ethics of yoga. In fact, it might be easier than we think.
*Good leadership requires vulnerability, and it is a difficult thing to manage. If you are in charge of other people in the yoga space, make sure that you figure out how to hold the tension between having healthy professional boundaries and allowing other people to see your weaknesses and mistakes. It is something I am challenged with daily, so if you are struggling I am with you. We will figure it out together. Your first step is to make sure you are being a serious and dedicated student.
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