» Yoga studio director Andrew Fredericks explains how practicing can improve our lives

CJ Sommerfeld
Staff Writer

 

hat dimensions of well-being are included in

your definition of “health”? What dimensions
of well-being are included in your definition of
“yoga”? How much overlap is there between these
two terms? Karma Teachers—a by-donation yoga
studio and teacher training school operating out of
Vancouver’s Downtown East Side—is reinventing
how (and to who) yoga is being delivered.

The Other Press got to virtually meet with
the studio’s director Andrew Fredericks to discuss
off-the-mat-yoga, how the pandemic helped him
understand creative heath and device-health, and
the studio’s reopening. Remarkably, each of these
things are intimately intertwined.

Fredericks begins by reminding us that yoga is
not so much an exercise regime as it is a lifestyle.
“At first, yoga was a concept. That was something
that | had to remove from the practice of yoga.

It eventually shifted into a lifestyle—an ongoing
practice.” He continues to tell us how one limb of
the practice has outshone the other seven in the
public’s eyes: “We primarily know yoga in the West
as physical, but there’s eight different layers to yoga.
The physical practice that we know, that’s so popular,
is third on that list—according to Patanjali. One and
two are the Yamas (restraints), and Niyamas (inner
observances). These are our social and our personal
ethical yoga practices; they’re principles that we
practice and live by. And the key word is practice.

By using that word, it can suggest there’s no way

of mastering that, but can further encourage it in
continuity. That is the off-the-mat yoga; that is what

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we take into our day-to-day lives. We’re not just
coming to this magic carpet to do our movements
and be a totally different person inside of that [yoga
mat]. Off the mat is very important; that is the
further practice of yoga.”

The remaining five limbs of yoga are pranayama
(breath control), pratyahara (deprivation of the
senses), dharana (focus), dhyana (meditation), and
samadhi (absorption). Fredericks reminds us, “we
are not experts in yoga or Sanskrit, but according to
various literature, translations of Sanskrit to yoga are
not direct or as easy as other languages. When we
use the words Yamas, Niyamas, and Asana we can’t
suggest that they mean one exact thing because
translating Sanskrit to English is complex.”

45 West Hastings has been the home to
Karma Teachers since it opened its doors in 2012,
however, they have vacated the space during
COVID. “Karma went through a bit of a split last
year, and right now it’s Phoenix that’s in the
space; Karma has gone to more of a digital studio,”
Fredericks tells the Other Press. For those who are
not eager to go back to in-studio classes, no need
to worry, Fredericks tells us how the Karma team is
also working on creating an online database with a
library of downloadable content.

Karma Teachers is, however, moving away from
their digital studio, and back into their heritage
space on West Hastings, with a soft opening
happening September 1. This location is special to
the non-profit, Fredericks tells us, “Karma has always
been located in a place where it’s been able to help
people.” What is Fredericks and the Karma team
hoping to see following the studio’s reopening?
“We're hoping for guests to feel more comfortable

and more welcome. [...] We want to see guests
returning, we have a huge mailing list which shows
that we have had a lot of people who have come
through the doors and into a building in one of the
worst neighborhoods in Vancouver.”

As someone whose always found the
community at Karma Teachers welcoming, | asked
Fredericks if he believes that space fosters social
health. “| can’t speak to [...] what makes everybody
feel socially comfortable because [...] it’s a lot to
make everybody feel [that]. [...] But if the past 15
months has taught the world anything, it’s that
social health is easily in the top-running. We have a
number of guests who just prefer to come for classes
because they get their social comforts elsewhere.
And, we have guests who come to the studio in
search of social comfort. [...] The studio will always
do their best to set the tone for [either].”

Mentioning social health was the perfect
segue into chatting about social media. How does
Fredericks suggest we foster healthy social media
practices? “Take back your power around how you
use social media. It’s a tool, and a device that we
(with conscious means) have the ability to control—
rather than being controlled by it. [...] Bringing some
awareness and control to this, can bring up some
time and space to either seek more external social
interactions, or build up more social connection that
we have with ourselves. Devices are just taking us
so far away from that and | think over the last year,
[COVID] could be something that has opened our
eyes up to it, or it could have just deepened us into
the hole.”

Fredericks continues to tell the Other Press
how refining his social media and device health

 

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We're not just coming to this magic carpet to do our movements
and being a totally different person inside of that [yoga mat]. Off
the mat is very important—that is the further practice of yoga.

— Andrew Fredericks, Karma
Teachers yoga studio director