Why Core Values are Important in Yoga and a How-to-Guide to Discover Yours
The idea of core values appears frequently in this yoga blog!
What are Core Values?
I define core values in yoga as the well from which our yoga practice, teaching, and spiritual business draws nourishment. If the phrase taking yoga "off the mat" means something to us, our core values define exactly what that is.
Clarifying a set of core values for our personal yoga practice provides relevance to the practice. What brings us to the mat? Why do we stick with it, even when it's hard or inconvenient? How does our yoga practice and our teaching create space for evolution as our needs, on and off the mat, grow and change over time?
As a yoga teacher, core values anchor our classes with intent. Core values provide the why for showing up so that we can step into our leadership role with confidence. How can we guide someone else on a journey for which we have no map, no understanding, no purpose?
Studios with clear core values have a cohesive staff working together for common goals. Individual teachers understand how they impact the greater vision of the studio. A yoga teacher with a strong sense of individual self-worth coupled with personal connection to the yoga studio’s vision is motivated, loyal, and dedicated.
In the Absence of a Clear Code
In a yoga class, a lack of core values leads to inconsistency in quality. I see it manifest itself as no common goal for student growth. No one understands the starting point or the finishing point of the yoga class journey or the student transformation. Students will "check-out" of these classes with fidgeting, boredom, anger, lack of motivation, lack of progress, and eventually lack of attendance.
These classes tend to be all about the teacher instead of focused on the student journey and their needs. Core values bridge the heart of our teaching to the hearts of our students. When we’re connected to a set of moral principles, we can understand how to subtly shift the energy of a class in relation to the students inside the practice room so that everyone feels included. They guide us to recognize and unite the needs of the class.
Many studios I've mentored who have a high teacher turnover rate or continuous conflict with their teachers usually lack clearly defined studio core values. They hire yoga teachers without initiating them into the company culture through a shared set of priorities and expectations.
Other times, the teacher’s core values clash with those of the studio. In this situation, conflicts arise because the two entities lack common ground for what experience to create inside the practice room and how to manifest it. The studio owner has one idea and the teacher has another. If they don’t share the same vision for the yoga class experience as defined by a common connection to core values, they will inevitably be at odds.
Yes or No
Still having difficulty understanding or defining a set of core values? Try this.
Everything we do, see, hear, speak, even our thoughts, taps one simple vibration in our consciousness: yes or no.
The same is true for outer stimulation. Other people's personal expression of consciousness awakens within us a yes or a no. You are experiencing it right now reading this blog. You are either attracted or repulsed by the energy.
Now take this idea into your yoga practice. What about practice makes you vibrate YES!? What makes you cringe?
Next, start to define these feelings into ideas. Distill the ideas down as much as possible into short phrases or single words.
From these words and phrases, see what thoughts, feelings, and patterns make themselves known. These are the core values of your yoga practice. What begins as an instinctual gut feeling is an inner compass leading you to your north star.
Apply this to your practice, your teaching, and your studio.
The Yoga Compass
West Wind's 7 Chakras of Service, the energetic principles that flow through our programs, are based on our core values. Defining them on the home page provides context for our site visitors, like you, to understand why we created West Wind Yoga Retreat and how you can benefit.
First, these core values must connect back to Yanni and me, as the founders. We embody them as:
Root - Be helpful
Sacral - Be creative
Solar plexus - Define a step by step journey for our members to move from point A - B
Heart - Embody the yoga lifestyle as defined by our mission statement
Throat -- Speak the truth
Third eye -- Create inner stillness to nurture outer connections
Crown -- Be the light so we can see and be seen
Next, we must bridge our connection to these core values with the services we offer.
Here is how those values translate into the lessons we create for you:
ROOT
Ground your studio vision with solid business mechanics. Learn practical, applicable tactics to create a solid foundation that supports growth and evolution in your yoga community. ​
SACRAL
Open to creativity. The most successful studios offer high-end yoga experiences like retreats when they realize that studio classes have become too limiting. Free yourself, free your students. West Wind will guide you.
SOLAR PLEXUS
Be empowered to attract more committed clients. The deeper the transformation, the more committed the client. Learn to craft a yoga journey for your clients where each program in the process leads them to their next level of success.
​HEART
​Nurture the heart of your studio. Define it with a clear yoga mission, vision, and core values. Yoga teachers who vibrate with the heartbeat of their studios effortlessly infuse their classes with purpose and intention. Find specific how-to-guides in our free yoga business blog.
THROAT
Express your studio culture with strong leadership. Studios that lack a unique company culture are also void of leadership, dedicated staff, loyal students, and innovation. Draw inspiration from West Wind’s mastermind community.
​THIRD EYE
Awaken to possibility. Yoga retreats are intimate while creating community. They provide stillness while being filled with new adventures. They are fun and fresh and offer up new perspectives on how to live, how to love, and what it means to be ourselves. ​​​
​CROWN
Shine the light your yoga practice ignites. The inner spirit can't be ignored. Shine brightly as a guiding light for yourself and for your yoga community, so that all can see the way forward.
These two points of view combined guide all of our programming decisions. We know they won’t resonate with everyone, but we find our people and so will you!
In Closing
Core values vibrate first from within, then steadily gain strength for outward expression.
In time, your whole energy will vibrate with your core values so strongly that they'll flow effortlessly from your heart to your tongue, nourishing your words. They'll buzz through your body and empower your yoga postures. They'll protect your mind from negativity and self-doubt.
The more clearly defined they are, the deeper meaning you'll find in your yoga practice, teaching, and business.
Namaste,
Lara
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