Elena Brower is starting a new website and it looks like the Goop for yoga teachers. We’re not saying she’s yoga’s Gwyneth Paltrow, but she’s building a pretty strong case. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, yoga teachers, and Elena Brower, former Anusara darling turned yogapreneurial maven is set on galvanizing you all in a virtual community of inspiration. Its form? Teach.yoga.
There are a lot of you yoga teachers now, we know. And, OK, it may seem tough out there to make the yoga doughnuts and bring home the tempeh bacon, but rest assured some day you’ll be able to score that five figure salary CNN says you’ll get. And hey, there are new yoga studios cropping up across the U.S. all the time, like in every state, even Alaska. Sure, there may be four times as many yoga teachers looking for gigs, but there are 20.4 million people practicing yoga in the U.S., and even more yoga platforms, festivals, and stages where you can share your gift. We’re confident Teach.yoga will guide you there. This is a growth industry baby! #blessed.
Here’s what we know about Teach.yoga so far:
– Somehow they managed to land the coveted teach.yoga url. Who do you have to teach yoga to around here to get a prime url, anyway? Probably these guys.
– The site was rumored to launch on the new moon, the first day of Spring which is also the equinox, super moon, solar eclipse. So auspicious.
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Family! Launching http://t.co/Vquqoq2pPm on the New Moon; musings for life, practice + teaching. Collaborate + create w us! @teachyogaworld
— Elena Brower (@ElenaBrower) March 11, 2015
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– Currently the site is a holding page asking you to drop your valuable email address to receive launch info. There is a very large photo of Elena Brower and the message “WELCOME YOUR HIGHEST SELF” followed by a short description: “This expansive, evolving, virtual home is for teachers worldwide, providing illuminating context and content for your learning and your life. At teach.yoga, together we witness and add to the beauty of our collective work.” 
– The site’s (our?) leader is Elena Brower who was once an Anusara star whose yoga teaching skills and popularity led her to become the mass yoga event teacher of the decade from parks to lawns to festivals spreading her message of love and gratitude. She is an expert marketer, public speaker (mostly on yoga, love and gratitude) and savvy spokesperson for products ranging from essential oils to skin care products to self-help programs to yoga clothing and accessories. She is the author of a book for which she easily and quickly raised $60,000 through a crowdfunding site. She used to own a yoga studio in NYC but claimed rising costs and rent put her out of business.
– Teach.yoga has been marketed heavily through Elena Brower’s twitter account where she has promised “major treats” for yoga teachers, as well as the official Teach.yoga social media accounts, which have largely resembled your average “yoga+inspiration” Pinterest boards with pretty photos and Rumi quotes abound.
– The latest information on what the site will actually offer came in the form of a pretty crystal-adorned note with all the right feel-good key words:
“teach.yoga for the teachers. Daily intelligence + inspiration. Wisdom from the luminaries of our time. Listings of advance trainings. Writings from teacher of all traditions, all styles; all love. Teachings of seva, service and how we can use our work to activate and advocate for change.”
Inspiring, no? Facetious say what?
We know we may seem cynical about this, but really we’re just natural skeptics. Elena Brower has way too many sponsorsy connections so it just feels a little…off. Then, again, the truth is there’s been an open opportunity for someone to bring yoga teachers of different styles together, to galvanize the community especially as yoga continues to grow and all of the modern gurus have either passed away, fallen hard from their own power-hungry egos, or have never chosen to be in the spotlight to begin with. Elena Brower does well in the spotlight. She always has. It’s almost like somebody had to do it. Why wouldn’t it be Elena Brower?
But if it’s going to be any good and useful at all, we would hope they ease off the daily photos and quotes of inspiration that already fill our facebook feed and flood the rest of social media. Love and gratitude are sweet for sure, but we hope there will be some real substance, some real useful tools for yoga teachers, beyond the fluff.
No matter what, though, it will probably be a hit. Elena fans are already inspired and it hasn’t even launched yet.
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Can’t wait for launch of http://t.co/1Abc9AJoLw via @ElenaBrower. Already inspired… http://t.co/Fp19RPkTVS #yoga — Jasyoga (@jasyogalondon) March 18, 2015
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Earlier…
I’m going to check it out even though comparing something to Goop makes me want to run far far away from it.
Dear God, please… enough of this light weight, Elena Brower appropriation and self-marketing. Let her focus on “Chitta Vritti Nirodha” for awhile.
Pankaj, I suggest you take your own advice and stop focusing on others.
Asinine, did you know that this EB person has this thing called ‘the art of attention’, yet was so utterly inattentive to what John Friend was up to, while in his inner circle? Pretty amazing Yoga trick?
Pankaj, Actually, fact is she left Anusara before the whole debacle, so I congratulate her on her attention skills. Now go practice what you preach.
Asinine, enjoy McYoga!!!
That’s a bit a tricky though, as it seems that E.B. Really really really likes to be focused upon.
Wonder no more. If you lack a modicum of self control, I can see how that would be a monumental task. Really.
Pinkij Person, Enjoy McSmug!!!
Now I’m wondering if asanine is e.b., or just a really devoted follower?
Now I’m wondering if asanine is e.b., or just a really devoted follower?
brower left anusara inc. in.y some months before the scandal broke, and that it is still called a scandal says a lot about the high standards, and contempt for anusarins. goop is to sell clothes like fashion magazines do, by publishing commercials as articles, which i don’t see teach.yoga doing except with teacher trainings, which are a more difficult sell. but the trainings and fashion seem too often to be parallel, good call yd. what i don’t see is the word or notion ‘peace’ but this is normal for yoga internet, ahem. peace to you! maybe occasionally it will plug jewelry; thanks to @shewhoholdsthenoose for the necklace, all victory to her.
Nice.
HI, I’ve just written a post about my first experience of Yoga and how its changed my life and outlook. Id Really appreciate any feedback/views from anyone who knows a little more about Yoga!
THANK YOU
http://www.westfourteen.wordpress.com
Why does any teacher need to be in the spotlight? May the better question is, why do people need a teacher in the spotlight? Yoga is internal practice, not to keep looking external, not to be a follower, but to see from your own experience what is true for you and to keep going deeper into your own practice, your own truth, your own knowing. There is only one guru for each of us-it is the one we have inside of us. All ancients traditions teach this. We have to be quiet to find it, not looking outward to anyone in a spotlight. They are not your teacher, only noise.
Seems to me that if the practice of yoga, love and gratitude are getting more media time in any way, we are all going to benefit. Sure beats the endless barrage of “Oh god, we’re going to hell in a hand-basket.” I’m just saying…