4.8
September 18, 2012

To Date or not to Date? Thoughts & Questions on Teacher/Student Romances.

I’m stating the obvious.

Even as you sit in your yoga teacher training talking about ethics, and among those is “don’t date your students,” yoga teachers do it all the time.

I’ve been cruised by teachers. I’ve been cruised by my students. I’ve been cruised by other people in class. At the beginning of my yoga journey, I had some very brief trysts. But In the long run, I desire relationship that is built on principles of equality, not those power dynamics that are set up in a teacher/student relationship. As such, I’ve never been in an ongoing relationship with a teacher or a student. It’s not enticing to me.

That said, among those who have dated their students or teachers, we all can cite many who went on to marry those people, to create solid business and teaching partnerships, and some who later divorced.

As we well know, divorce has a very high rate of occurrence these days, and so it is not unusual to see it happening among yogis.

But, I’m curious why so many people choose to ignore all advice, popular wisdom, ethical arguments, evidence that these sorts of relationships tend to go sour, and decide to date among their yogi tribe. Can you explain this? Please comment below.

~

Editor: Kate Bartolotta

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