Community Social Agreement
Bellingham Yoga Collective’s Community Social Agreement below is in service of maintaining a shared social space that is representative of studio core values and some of the yoga traditions’ ethical values. In this space we acknowledge, value, and agree to practice the following.
All are welcome here.
Within these walls we strive to foster a welcoming space for everyone regardless of their age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, national origin, marital status, parental status, veterans status, personal medical choices, religion, or physical or mental ability.
As a team and a collective of unique individuals, we strive to empathize and support one another.
We hold the practices of Ahimsa (right action/non harm) and Satya (truthfulness) at the heart of our operations, offerings, and communication styles. We commit to the ongoing relationship of deepening these core values in our interactions with each other at BYC.
This community understands that one’s own ‘truth’ and what truthfulness means to each of us are fluid.
Each of us can only see as far as our unique experiences (or lens) shaped through our past, personal values and belief systems. At BYC we ask that when in relationship with other community members that one’s own truth is arrived at from a two fold process of acknowledgement to what is personally alive within us (our lens/opinion), while exposing ourselves to different views that might be in opposition with our own with a lens of empathy. This is a process that the yoga tradition calls ‘correct evaluation’ (pramana) which is the foundation of harmony in spaces where everyone has diverse needs and expectations. This ongoing, alive process of assessing truthfulness adapts what we do and how we do it as our community grows and evolves.
We acknowledge every community member has a different reason for coming to BYC.
This work we do is deeply personal, yet we show up in community for it. We accept people for who they are and that their motivations for yoga might be different from their neighbor. As such, our instructors promise to not assume anything about a student nor ask for a certain level of participation from anyone in class. Our instructors are guides and with this intent, we hope it provides our community the space to be and move however they might need at any moment.
We acknowledge yoga instructors have a specific scope of practice.
This includes guiding and sequencing yoga classes, analyzing and supporting students’ postural alignment in yoga poses, interpreting and sharing yoga philosophy from ones’ own digested experience, as well as offering self care tools such as breathwork and mantra. Naturally, as humans participate in the full spectrum of yoga and how to apply yogic principles off the mat, we should expect our humanity and our wounding to arise. It’s important when this happens to be well resourced mentally and emotionally, as yoga teachers are not mental health therapists. We have resource referrals in the bathroom should anyone in our community have a desire for resources beyond the scope of practice we offer here.
These above guidelines serve as the standard to staff, teachers and all practitioners at BYC when we interact with one another. May we hold each other to these guidelines in service of collective care towards living the values of the Yoga practice.
Help Us Grow
We love constructive feedback and we appreciate the chance to grow if you feel that something needs to be addressed or can be improved. Please send us your comments through our community feedback form. For all other studio inquiries, you can reach out to our front desk through our general contact form.