Excuse me but you should consider otherwise.

~Jolene Renay

Yoga is not a religion, it is a tool.  Your body is your vessel and it needs nourishing food, herbs, spices, & self-care tools.  It also needs movement, air, and your mind needs to be less active with useless worry.   

A doctor, recently told a new trainee of mine that he was proud of her for starting a gym membership but she should be careful about the yoga class she attends.  Supposedly, yoga goes against religion. 
Another doctor recently told another trainee of mine that there is no point of changing a diet to help reverse or slow down an auto-immune disorder. 

ARE YOU F’N KIDDING ME?!  The western culture makes you decide a choice.  That decision gives you a stereo-type and then judgement begins.  

Are you republican or democratic?
Are you a vegetarian or omnivore?
Are you Catholic or Christian?
Are you gay or straight?
Are you Asian or White?

Nowhere in my training did anyone make me decide.  My yoga trainings allowed me to create a safe space within myself, so I can explore my vessel.  As I began the exploration I became stronger and developed a community of like-minded people.  Together we expand that safe space, so people can explore together in community with no judgement.  Yoga provides tools that helps support you to be your best self.

I found movement and meditation before I was a teenager.  When I was 29 and living in Boulder, CO I learned that India is the birthplace of yoga.  So, I went deeper into the studies of yoga because it seems I was already doing it.   Many of these Indian yogis were teachers, doctors, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, etc.  Why is it so bad that there are human beings in the world of all religions who studied yoga?  They were capable to remove themselves from the busy world, study the process of meditation, and create a language for what they discovered.
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I am a child of God.  At one point of my life I was an atheist.  I even had it printed on my dog tags when I served in the Army.  If it wasn’t for yoga I would have never found God.  I would have never heard God speak to me.  I would have never seen God. 
It is a beautiful thing when humans can explore life and realize that much of life discovery leads back to God.  The discovery of creation and how this whole world is created equal.  There is no way for the whole world to have one story.  There is a way to share stories and hold respect, love, & gratitude. 
Yoga is not a cure and it does not fix anything.  However, yoga helps you develop a relationship with your body and gives you an understanding of why your body may feel a certain way.  Notice tension, explore nutrition, breathe deeply, & meditate.  Yoga teaches tools, so you can support your vessel with hopes to be pain-free & stress-free.  It provides tools to teach love & compassion, so you can support your community.  Each human being has the right of freedom.  Freedom of speech & choice. 

This freedom can create conflict and how do you handle conflict?  Can you approach conflict with love & compassion?  Can you support the community around you even when other people’s freedom of speech & choice looks different?  Can you support the people who do not fit into your bracket?  Can you support all stereo-types?  Can you encourage people to be their best self?  Are YOU your best self? 

Doctors, I have my opinions about you but I would like to move forward.  I have a vision that our society will one day have less doctors because more people will educate themselves on functional medicine, naturopathy, integrative medicine, & holistic medicine.  We all need to work together on this as community and personally, I would change doctors if they did not support that statement.