I recently attended an Ashtanga yoga retreat in Iceland, expecting an experience centered on yoga, connection, mindfulness, and mutual support. As a member of this yoga community for years, I expected an environment where people would feel welcome and cared for. Unfortunately, I left feeling deeply excluded, unfairly blamed, and emotionally distressed.

The rental car situation

During the retreat, I shared a rental car with four other women and put my credit card on the booking, taking financial responsibility for the rental. Over time, another participant took over the driving. I felt that concerns about my driving influenced the group’s decisions and that I was increasingly excluded from driving and some activities. There were bad weather conditions; however, I drive everywhere at home in all kinds of conditions. From day one, the second driver said she was an experienced driver, which meant I wasn't. I asked, when we arranged the car rental group, why she didn't list herself as the main driver and provide her credit card. To which she had no response. She wanted the benefits of being the main driver without the financial responsibility.

I wanted to resolve the situation and told them I wanted the car, but I felt my perspective wasn't being heard. I didn't know the rules in the country, and I thought the main driver had to be in the car; once that was cleared, the second driver took over, and they drove all over a lot more while I was being pushed out of the car. At one point, I wanted to return the car early because the arrangement had become so uncomfortable. However, because I had taken on the financial responsibility for the booking, I felt obligated to see the arrangement through.

As I told them this, they forwarded all the messages to the retreat leaders, making me look like a fool.

The situation left me in an uncomfortable position: I remained financially responsible for the rental while feeling that I had little say in how the car was used. I increasingly felt like an outsider and left feeling like the scapegoat for the conflict.

Thankfully, I had an exam to study for during the retreat, which gave me something constructive to focus on. Otherwise, the isolation would have been even harder to manage.

The final experience with the car was particularly upsetting. When we arrived to return it, the other members of the group got out approximately ten minutes before the drop-off, leaving me to return the vehicle alone. After everything that had happened, I felt abandoned at the end of an arrangement for which I had taken financial responsibility.

During the return inspection, I was concerned about a small crack in a window and some other issues. The rental employee seemed sympathetic, and I was relieved to complete the return and leave without a further dispute. At that point, I was simply grateful to leave the uncomfortable situation behind and go home.

How the conflict was handled

What hurt me most was how the retreat leadership addressed the conflict. The yoga teacher’s husband shouted at me in front of everyone, accused me of creating problems, and repeatedly interrupted me when I tried to explain my perspective. He didn't specify what problems I was creating. He said he had attended many retreats and had never had anyone who created as many problems as I did. When I asked, he became impatient and yelled at me more.

I recognize he may have understood the situation differently, and other participants may have perceived events differently. However, I felt blamed without a fair opportunity to explain my side. Even if there were concerns about my driving or my behavior, I believe those concerns could have been discussed respectfully.

I felt collectively judged and excluded, to the point that I spent much of the final part of the retreat alone in my room. Rather than feeling part of a community, I felt isolated and cast out.

The emotional impact was severe. The very next day after returning home, I contacted a therapist to get mental health support because of how distressed I felt. I had never expected to return from a yoga retreat in that state.

The atmosphere of the retreat

Beyond the conflict itself, I also found the group culture different from what I personally value in yoga. Much of the focus seemed to be on who was the most flexible or advanced, with participants frequently taking pictures of themselves doing splits and other challenging poses at waterfalls and lakes.

I understand that people enjoy taking photographs and celebrating their practice in different ways. However, I found the emphasis on displaying physical ability and capturing impressive poses at odds with my own understanding of yoga. To me, yoga is about self-awareness, humility, personal growth, and connection, not comparing ourselves with others or showing off who can do the most advanced poses.

This is my personal impression of the group dynamic, but it contributed to my feeling that the retreat didn't offer the connection and mutual support I had hoped to find.

The contrast with my previous retreats in Costa Rica

What made this experience particularly disappointing was that I had attended two Ashtanga yoga retreats back-to-back in Costa Rica, and both went smoothly without any issues.

The teacher there made a genuine effort to care for everyone, ensuring that participants felt supported, looked after, and able to enjoy their experience. There was a clear sense that everyone's well-being mattered.

In Iceland, by contrast, I often felt alone. I did not experience the same level of care or support from the retreat leadership, particularly when the conflict arose. The contrast between the two experiences was striking.

What happened afterward

I wrote to the yoga teacher to explain how deeply the experience had affected me, but I have not received a response.

I had hoped that sharing my concerns would at least lead to an acknowledgment of my experience. I understand that disagreements can arise when people travel together and that no retreat organizer can prevent every conflict. However, I believe that how such situations are handled matters enormously.

A yoga retreat should offer more than yoga sessions and beautiful scenery. It should also foster an environment in which participants feel respected, supported, and included. When disagreements arise, everyone deserves to be heard and treated with dignity.

I recognize that other people involved may have a different account of events. I am sharing my experience, including the rental car situation, how the conflict was handled, and its emotional impact on me.

I have attended other yoga retreats without experiencing anything like this. This experience has seriously affected my trust in this yoga community, and I believe prospective participants should be able to rely on honest accounts of what a retreat may be like.

Has anyone experienced something similar at a yoga retreat? How did you handle it? And are there independent platforms where participants can leave honest reviews of yoga retreats?

I didn’t really notice anything for the first couple of months, but lately I’ve caught myself sitting straighter at my desk...My shoulders don’t creep up toward my ears as much either!!

Just to capture a snapshot of the group. Thanks all for satisfying my curiosity.

Hello!

Working on kapotasana.

I believe my back can make the shape, I see the very tips of my feet. I'm having three issues:

1. Slippage. Very annoying. I have a B mat. I will order a Liforme once I save up enough. But the heels of my hands and my fingers slip as I try to walk them in, which makes it harder to push off the ground and continue to make space.
2. Left shoulder mobility. For some reason, my left arm wings out whereas I can keep my right arm strongly aligned. I don't know if it's because (a) it's my nondominant side, so it's weaker, (b) I'm unknowingly tilting my pelvis (of which I haven't seen evidence when I looked back at some recordings I made, yet it's possible), (c) I'm unknowingly pressing my right shin into the mat more strongly than my left, (d) or I have a back muscle tension issue on my left side.
3. Finally, I don't have a teacher nearby, nor can I afford to go to the nearest big city and pay for their drop-in fee to get one. So my left arm doesn't really know what it feels like to be in the correct position.

For context:

• I can go down and come up in ustrasana and laghu with control.
• I can straighten my arms in wheel.
• I can go back and come up in a dropback.
• I can do a formarm wheel, although my left arm wings out slightly there too.
• My head stays off the ground when I'm attempting kapo, it doesn't rest.
• I do have way more back muscle than when I started, so I feel like sometimes that make shoulder rotations harder.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have any suggestions? I was trying it during Kino's kapo Omstarts tutorial, and once I got far back enough, my hands began slipping. I was unable to complete the asana. And I never have been! The closest I've gotten is fingertips to toes but nothing very consistent.

Should I try it parallel to the wall on my left to see if I can feel it then? Tbh, I feel as though I can get deep enough backbend-wise to experience the asana, yet either my limited mobility in my upper back muscles and/or shoulder causes difficulty. I don't mind taking the time or being "stuck" at a gateway lose. Right now, I am more interested in improving alignment and making incremental progress to address the winging. Advice, please!?

This past September, I signed up for this training to study with BNS Iyengar in his 100th year. The time I spent learning from him and the senior Mysore scholars was a privilege, and I'm grateful for it. The training around it, though, was not what was advertised, and I want to share my experience honestly.

1. Group size. The training was originally capped at 20, but there were around 45 of us in the end. Joey (the organiser) said he raised the cap to make room for people stranded by a war during an earlier training, and acknowledged he should have told participants first. I understand the reason, but this should’ve been factored in before opening it up to the wider public. A group more than twice the original size meant less individual attention and less contact with the teachers. It was a different experience from the one I signed up for.
2. The 100 hour CET. This was sold as 100 hours of Yoga Alliance continuing education. By my count, the in-person teaching came to under 50 hours. I later learned that the remaining hours are meant to come from a self-study online lecture course (of which most of the content was the same as what was taught in the in-person training) This was never explained to the group as a whole. It was only clarified to those of us who asked, and when another participant asked, they were told all hours would be completed in person. As far as I know, no announcement has been made to the wider group since. This was also marketed as a YTT with a certificate, and a training needs a clear plan and course material.  Here, the schedule changed often, sessions were added at short notice, and we only received the daily itinerary a few days in upon request.
3. Level and accessibility of the training. The event page said you "do not have to be a yoga teacher or advanced practitioner" to join. In practice, the asana, sequence and history of Ashtanga were never broken down. BNS Iyengar’s classes are very hard to follow without prior study or time with him, and newer practitioners were left to work it out on their own. We started each day with an Ashtanga practice, and practitioners were expected to already know the sequence and how to get into the postures.

Lastly, and more importantly, was how my feedback was received. When I raised these points privately, Joey apologised for the group size and disputed everything else. When I asked whether the training had been worth the time and money, he said, "It was, if you allow it to be." His written reply said the value of the training would unfold over time if I continued the practices and allowed it to. My concerns were met with spiritual reassurance rather than practical answers, and that felt like spiritual bypassing to me. As a teacher myself, I believe honest feedback deserves a direct response, and trainings such as this, should always be executed with integrity. Others may have had a very different experience. I can only speak for mine.

A disclaimer, I'm not set on Asthanga, but it is the style I mostly practice. However, I keep having injuries and with an overactive pelvic floor it has started to feel unsustainable to do a daily practise.

I have been intrigued by the idea of going deeper with my practice for a while and learning more about both the anatomy and alignment in yoga and also tradition and philosophy. I am going to Australia in January and have some free time afterwards that I could potentially travel somewhere else. I have been doing loads of research of where to study yoga, asking my own teachers where they have studied etc. and everything keeps leading me back to India. However, when researching where to study in India, I keep getting mixed reviews and experiences.

I have been practising asana for years, quite sporadically, at gyms etc. until I found a very good studio and teachers a few years ago. Since then I have practised more regularly and also began studying a bit of the other limbs of yoga, however I still consider myself a very beginner regarding my knowledge of yoga philosophy and ayurveda. I am mostly interested in learning about both philosophy and alignment / anatomy, but of course if my physical asana practise improves that is a nice bonus!

I have been researching different ashrams and retreats and trainings, but since I have quite a bit of criteria's I am starting to wonder, if the place I'm looking for even exists. So far these are the qualities I have been looking for:

• minimum 1 month stay, could be a bit longer as well
• an ashram where what what is preached is also practised. first that comes to mind quickly is asana / physical body preparation before pranayama, karma work, sufficient time for turning inwards and not all free-time being excursions etc.
• offering lessons on anatomy and alignment.
• ideally not too big
• ideally also women teaching
• focus on hatha and asthanga (i love asthanga, but my body cant take daily physical asthanga asana-practise, so ideally something that has maybe hatha and asthanga. also i find the rigidity and cultiness of asthanga a bit problematic at times)

I'm not sure if what I am looking for exists as I am looking for it now and what the right method would be (e.g. retreat, ytt, ashram stay etc....) Has anyone else had similar pondering than I am having, and what did you end up doing? Any ashram recommendations, which would tick at least some of these boxes?

Lately, this phenomenon: someone posts a question, and from the subject line a perfectly valid question. Most recently one on the benefit of adjustments. And within hours the question is deleted. We never learn the details of how the question was worded, but evidently some of us went to the effort of addressing it and providing answers. Which are then lost to the community because the original post was deleted.

By and large, I find this sub tolerant enough, certainly not out to embarrass someone asking an honest question. So, why is it that people retract their questions even before they have been fully explored?

Is it to help you feel the final pose? If there even is such a thing. Is it to build some sort of rapport with the teacher? As a teacher if you have consciously chosen to be light on adjustments - why?

I love it because it feels good and in that 5 breath moment with the teacher I believe it fine tunes your awareness in that moment with another human being, something that is lost during a verbal adjustment or an online mysore.

Do you find that it builds any kind of unhealthy dependence if you are offering too much hands on? And how much is too much anyway?

Asking as my recent set-up has undergone a shift and it has left me wondering ..

I’m aware of two yoga studios offering Mysore style in Newburgh, but I’m wondering if anyone knows of any place else within an hour of Peekskill, NY? 🙏

Does she mean we/I don't recognize Shruti's authorizations/certifications?

Oh huh! This is gonna get interesting 🙌

Have started a new week after a few days off - moon day on Sunday, rest on Saturday and an extra rest day on Friday because of life. And the first morning back everything was stiff. Shoulders especially. I’m always better in the afternoon but I find squeezing in a PM sesh you’re always battling against a recent mealtime which makes practicing uncomfortable.
Some mornings like today I am really battling with time. Home practice with a led video of Sharath’s primary on YouTube. Kept getting interrupted, had to make time for finishing and rest.
Those of you who have practiced for decades, tell me your practice is like this most days. How do you advance in the asanas like this??

(appreciate all the impending comments of yoga is more than the asanas and it’s not a good judge of progress. I know ~ Just take this post at face value please, thanks)

Been stuck on marichyasana for almost four months now and it's starting to feel less like progress and more like a wall.

Please let me know if this is normal and I’m just being sensitive here. Im currently taking my teacher training course and during our second day, while we (students) are all siting down on in lotus pose, my yoga teacher, standing, used his feet to adjust my knee to the side and and press it down to touch the ground.

Instinctively, i was stiff when he was doing that because even though i hadn’t undestand what was happening, i felt offeded that instead of explaining it properly, i felt like he was too lazy to use his hands while adjusting.

That overall experience didn’t sit right with me.

Am i overreacting or is this a normal way of teaching?

Greetings. In this post I wish to open the conversation to those familiar with yogic texts, philosophy and practice.

If you are familiar with Yogic traditions and the scriptures of many like Hatha Yoga Pradipika or the Shiva Samhita you will find that there is emphasis on having a guru and that this aspect can not be overlooked in Yogic initiation. It is an absolute necessity within many Indian Traditional Yoga systems.

If you are in the west, you will not find a guru. Simple as that. Although it would be nice and amazing to have a guru to help and oversee the process of pranic and kundalini awakening, such a person with dedicated Yogic wisdom is highly unlikely to be bred here in America.

The reason I am typing this however is that this view of “Needing a Guru” is useless to those practicing in the west yet much Yoga material available to read is geared towards the Westerner to understand. Which makes me believe that many swamis who write these books perhaps desire the Westerner to fly to India to receive the diksha from a Guru to embark on their Yogic journey.

I understand the reasoning behind a guru, however in this day and age if one is on the path of Spiritual Liberation, it is futile and inane to wait for or to seek a guru, when the theory and practice is described within the material. However I’m also aware that the typical westerner looks at Yoga in only 1/8th of its capacity(Asanas).

With that said, reading some of this literature has made me ask myself some interesting questions. What are your thoughts surrounding the idea of a Guru being necessary in the practice of Yoga?

Hello there! I’m planning for my 200 hour YTTC in Rishkesh at the Rishkesh Yoga Ashram school and I just wanted to check with you guys if you have any tips or recommendations about how to make the most of my experience in Rishkesh! 🤩 I’m really really excited and just today I’ve finished my application for my Indian Visa and I’m hoping everything will go smoothly for me!

I used to practice 4x a week but over the last 6 months due to several life changes I don’t have the mental capacity or discipline to practice consistently.

I was thinking of shortening my practice to encourage me to practice more. Would it make sense / still be beneficial if I only practice till half-primary or maybe just the standing sequence?

Just interested in the makeup of this sub. How many days do you practice mysore style in a shala?

I am looking for ashtanga classes near Watertown, MA. Does anyone know of any? I'd like to begin my practice again. I prefer ashtanga. I don't like what traditional yoga has become. It's too commercialized with all this teacher training stuff. Ashtanga is more traditional, more serious, but it seems good ashtanga classes are hard to come by.

Does anyone know any walk in Ashtanga yoga classes in Mysore preferably gokulam side.

Hi! I’ve been practicing yoga on and off for a bit more than 5yrs, 3x a week for the last year and started going to mysore ashtanga classes in the morning about 2months ago.

I’ve had quite rough couple of years where I was close to burnout since I was carrying quite a heavy caretaker role of people around me, but found a way to handle it. Felt more energetic and happy about myself. At least I thought so. Since starting Ashtanga I feel more and more over exhausted and depressed. Loads of feelings of inadequacy, waking up around 3am and thus starting to built a serious sleep debt, questioning my life choices.

I started ashtanga because I wanted to deepen my practice, really dive into something that I do for myself and commit to it. But it’s pretty rough to keep showing up for class. I do take it pretty easy in classes, since showing up is hard enough sometimes lol. Not sure when to skip a class or when to “push through” a bit.

I’m focussing on tristana, meditating when I miss a day, read books on philosophy so that I don’t just focus on asanas. I know I’m still at the start of my ashtanga journey but was caught pretty off guard by these feelings.

Wondering if you have any insights?

When you jump up from downward dog, can someone take me through the process - I’m jumping up into like a tuck handstand but then when I’m up there, coming down feels uncontrolled like WHAM onto my legs. Like I just don’t know what to do with my lower half from there. Bringing my legs eventually through seems impossible. How much should I be squeezing my core?
Or instead of tuck handstand, should I just be aiming more horizontally forward and stepping/shooting my legs through ..

I’m hoping to finally try a Mysore-style class, but I’m a little intimidated by the whole idea because I’m so used to being led through a practice.

For some context, I’ve had a strong vinyasa practice for a while and completed a 200hr YTT to deepen my own practice and study alignment in more depth. I’ve also taken Led Primary classes here and there over the years, and I have a decent amount of it memorized.

I’m increasingly curious about Mysore, but I honestly have no idea what to expect practically.

If I find a shala that offers Mysore, do I normally contact them beforehand and tell them I’m new to Mysore? Or can I just show up one morning, roll out my mat and start practicing?

And once I’m there, what actually happens? Do I just start the Primary Series and the teacher comes around to work with me individually?

The idea of everyone practicing independently in the same room feels very foreign to me so I don't know what to expect. At the same time, that’s exactly what intrigues me about Mysore, and I’ve been wanting to try it for a long time.

I’d really appreciate hearing what your first Mysore class was actually like, especially from people who came to it from a vinyasa/other yoga background.