Learning, Unlearning & Honoring Yoga

My relationship with yoga has continued to change as I’ve grown. I’m constantly learning and unlearning, especially when it comes to the Westernized version of yoga that many of us were introduced to. I’ve had to look deeper at the difference between appreciation and appropriation, learn more about yoga beyond the physical practice, and question some of the things I was originally taught.

I don’t consider myself an authority over yoga. I’m still a student of the practice, and I think I always will be. I want to continue learning about its roots, honoring where these practices come from, and being intentional about how I share them. I don’t want to reduce yoga to poses, flexibility, fitness, or an aesthetic. For me, part of being a responsible guide means being willing to learn, acknowledge what I don’t know, and change the way I teach as my understanding grows.

Creating the Spaces I Wanted to See

A huge part of Flow With Tiff has been creating spaces where Black and Brown people can experience wellness without feeling like they have to fit into the image the wellness industry has created. I wanted spaces where we could slow down, breathe, connect, and pour back into ourselves. Spaces where you don’t have to be flexible, experienced, dressed a certain way, have a certain body type, or already understand the language of yoga to belong.

Through Flow With Tiff, I’ve held intentional rest and wellness spaces for Black and Brown communities, hosted wellness events and retreats for women, worked with nonprofits and community organizations to help make yoga more accessible, brought yoga and mindfulness to children and young people, and created experiences centered around rest, connection, gentle movement, and community care. I’ve taught inside and outside of traditional wellness spaces because I believe wellness should be able to meet people where they are.

Guiding the Next Generation of Yoga Teachers

My journey eventually led me to facilitating 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, where I’ve had the honor of training and certifying three cohorts of Black women. That chapter of my work has been especially meaningful because representation matters—not only in who gets to practice yoga, but in who gets to guide it, create spaces, lead communities, and bring these practices back into places that have historically been overlooked by the mainstream wellness industry.

Facilitating YTT also taught me something important: certification is only the beginning. I watched new teachers complete their training with knowledge and a certificate and still have so many questions about what happens next. How do I find my own voice? How do I create a class that actually feels like me? How do I market myself without feeling fake? How do I approach organizations and create partnerships? What should be included in an agreement? How do I price my work? How do I make my classes accessible? How do I continue learning about trauma-informed practices? And most importantly, how do I hold intentional space without simply becoming a copy of the person who trained me?

Beyond the 200 Hours

Those questions became part of the inspiration for Beyond the 200 Hour, my virtual mentorship, workshop, and community for newer yoga teachers. This isn’t another certification or another training where the goal is to collect more hours. It’s about everything that happens after those first 200 hours.

Through Beyond the 200 Hour, I’m helping newer teachers find their voice, create intentional classes, understand the business side of teaching yoga, market and promote themselves authentically, create agreements, build community partnerships, explore accessibility and trauma-informed practices, and become more confident in the spaces they create. I don’t believe we need more yoga teachers trying to look, sound, or teach exactly alike. I want to help people figure out who they are as guides, why they’re doing this work, who they want to serve, and how they can continue learning while doing it.

The Next Chapter of Flow With Tiff

After years of teaching, facilitating trainings, hosting events, building community, and having my own physical studio, I’m allowing Flow With Tiff to evolve again. Closing the studio isn’t the end of my work—it has actually given me room to think differently about what this work can look like when it isn’t tied to one physical space.

I’m continuing to guide virtual classes and community-based in-person experiences while expanding the mentorship, education, and community-care side of Flow With Tiff. I want to continue working with schools, nonprofits, organizations, children, adults, communities that have historically had less access to wellness spaces, and newer yoga teachers who are figuring out where they fit within this work.

The question that started so much of what I do was, “How can I help people give themselves permission to slow down?” Now another question is becoming just as important: “How can I help other guides create spaces where more people feel supported enough to do the same?”

I’m Still Becoming, Too

I’m still learning. I’m still unlearning. I’m still practicing. I’m still figuring out what rest looks like in different seasons of my own life. I’m still examining my relationship with wellness and the way I show up in this work.

And I think that’s important.

I’m not here to teach anyone how to perfect rest, yoga, or wellness. I’m here to create space for people to come back to themselves, to help make these practices feel more accessible and human, and to remind people that slowing down doesn’t have to be earned.

That has been the heart of Flow With Tiff from the beginning.

And as I continue to evolve, so will the way I hold space.