OK, I’ve understood my place in this yoga teaching universe, or at least an approach I’m drawn to. I dig the Instagrammers running around doing yoga outside studios in their street cloths.

Yoga for me has always been a reliable way to get through a tough day, stay comfortable while I travel, get a little back relief (like most people, I sit too much), deal with my injured ankle, and control my urge to smack people.

I love hanging out with hard core yogis from time to time, watch them twist themselves into beautiful, perfect poses, learn how to make homemade laundry detergent, hear their stories, and visit their wonderful world of now. I have a toe in that earthy, spiritual, free world, but the rest of me exists in the chaos of modern life. And yoga is how I survive it.

As for Ayurveda, the preventative medicine and healthcare that goes well with yoga, it’s good stuff. It offers ways to get in perfect tune with natural rhythms, but again, in actual practice, I just want to be able to eat bacon and drink coffee without getting heartburn; keep warm and healthy in the winter; stay cool and comfortable in the summer; and take care of aches and pains with simple ingredients that don’t have a long list of potential side effects.

That simple, come as you are, in your jeans, with your stress, and all your life’s mess is the yoga approach I’m interested in sharing with my loved ones and my community.