Mirrors Don’t Belong in Yoga Studios

Although we can’t avoid mirrors in our day to day lives, we should be able to avoid them when we go to practice in a yoga studio.

Mirrors in a yoga studio are one of my biggest personal pet peeves and I believe a big no no when it comes to creating a space to practice yoga in. I personally have made the decision not to go back to certain yoga studios just because they had a mirror in the studio, even if the teacher was wonderful or the studio itself was fine.

“Mirror Mirror on the wall — who’s the fairest yogi of them all?”

When I refer to having mirrors in the yoga studio I’m not talking about a small mirror on one wall or a mirror in the bathroom or the dressing room. I’m refering to having a large mirror that spans one to three walls in a studio, is there on purpose, and is even cued to in the practice by the teacher.

Mirrors Don’t Belong Here

Mirrors have their place in society and I’m guilty of catching my own reflection and checking myself out while walking by a mirror or using it to examine just how badly I need to tweeze my eyebrows, but our reflection and being constantly aware of it is not something that should be present to while we are practicing yoga.

Yoga is all about tuning into oneself, getting past the outside layers of ourselves that we have judgements and stories about and using the breath and movement as a tool to feel into our true nature, which is one of connection and love. Having mirrors in the studio can bring in competition, judgement, comparison, and can intrude on that connection to self and oneness.

I understand the need for mirrors in studios that practice dance, bar, aerial, etc., but studios that are dedicated to yoga and want to create a space that’s about more than the physical asana have no need for mirrors on their walls. The need for mirrors when practicing dance is about seeing form and hopefully using it for safety and to improve, but even if the sport of dance I think that mirrors can breed unnecessary critique and judgment and unfair comparision of oneself or to others practicing in the room.

Physical yoga is a movement practice and although some might argue that mirrors can be there as tool, just like in dance, to help strengthen form and improve on postures, I would argue that this improvement and checking in with safe alignment can be done by more fully tuning into oneself and seeking a knowledgeable teacher.

So why exactly should mirror’s be eliminated from yoga studios?

The Reasons Why

1. Mirrors can breed judgement and self criticism: For many of us just standing in front of a mirror can bring up feelings of shame, judgement, and self criticism, and even though I think it can be powerful work to begin to look in the mirror and see yourself for who you are truly are and love that person, it may be hard to reach that place in a yoga class. Many people come to yoga as an escape and as a time to tune into themselves and try to reach that accepting, loving place within themselves and putting mirrors in the yoga studio can get in the way of that connection. We face enough mirrors and situations that can trigger self criticism throughout our day and I don’t believe that our yoga space needs to be one of those places.
2. Mirrors can create unnecessary competition: For those of us that are naturally competitive it can be very normal to enter a challenging vinyasa class and feel like you need to be just as good, if not better, than the other yogis practicing next to you. While this is important work to realize in yourself and begin to notice, these competitive tendencies can easily be made worse by mirrors reflecting back to you your own practice and the practice of everyone else in the room. When there aren’t mirrors in the studio we can more easily focus only on our own mat and our practice. However, the presence of mirrors and having to focus your drishti there many times during the practice can lead you to notice the more advanced practices of others in the room and push yourself to compete with them even if it’s not healthy or safe for your body.
3. Mirrors limit our connection to self: In the same way mirrors can breed self judgement and comparison, they can also limit our connection to self. When we are forced to gaze upon our reflection and use the mirror as a tool of noticing our body and our postures through the practice, we lessen our ability to fully tune into how our body feels and self correct alignment based on feelings within the body alone. We start to use the mirrors as the only way to see the postures and notice them, and therefore do away with the more intuitive practices of actually scanning the body, noticing changes in breath, and feeling how a pose works with or against us in a particular moment.
4. Mirrors kill the environment of a yoga studio: Part of the reason we choose to practice yoga in a studio and not in our homes is that we crave a certain type of environment. We want a safe space to practice that is clean, clear of distractions, and that helps us cultivate more connection to the present moment. For me and for many others mirrors immediately kill that soothing environment that we crave when we choose a place to lay down our mat. Mirrors change the feel of the space for me, and even if everything else in the yoga studio is setup for me to have a positive experience and to be completely safe in the space, I am immediately put off by seeing large mirrors.
5. Mirrors are distracting to both teachers and students: As both a yoga teacher and a student I know how much attention and focus in needed both when teaching a class and taking a class. There is a need to pay attention to small details as a teacher, feel into the sense of the room, and notice each student and their particular practice as you also skillfully cue and verbally align students through intricate postures. When there’s the added distraction of having a mirror in the studio, this process can get further complicated and cause you to forget to notice the new student in the corner who keeps looking around for extra reassurance that she is doing the right pose at the right time. As a student, there’s a need to focus and tune into oneself during the practice, matching breath to movement while being present, and a mirror and the reflection of yourself and others in the room can be incredibly distracting to that process. You no longer have the ability to put yourself in the front of the room and zone out into your own space because there is a giant mirror taking up the front wall.

What we can use instead

So what can you as a teacher and/or student use instead of mirrors to strengthen your practice and safely navigate postures with good alignment?

1. Strengthen your connection to self: Use the cues that the teacher provides and use the clues that your body gives you to determine if a posture is right. Notice how when you move or when you change something slightly how it affects the rest of your body. Does grounding down through your foot more make your leg feel stronger and give you more stability throughout the rest of the pose? Little changes like that wouldn’t be detectable in a mirror but can change everything for you in that moment. Noticing how your breathe might change if you are pushing yourself too hard or how it slows down and gives way to more space in the body when you are in a deep stretch are powerful indicators that aren’t registered in your reflection. When we give ourselves the opportunity to really trust and strengthen our connection to self we can easily strengthen our practice and safely align ourselves.
2. Know that your movement or posture does not have to look the same as the person next to you: Yoga isn’t meant to be competitive, it’s meant to just be about you, your body, and your breath. Although coming together in a room to practice and feeling the united energy throughout a class in a studio is amazing it should not take away from your individual connection to self. While mirrors can breed competition and comparison, we should strive to break away from those feelings during a yoga class.
3. Greet yourself and your practice for what it is that day: Everyday we show up to our mat we are different, and we should treat ourselves as such. Honor how your body feels in that moment, whether it’s great or lousy and allow yourself to have the practice that you need that day.
4. Find a studio environment that helps you grow and allows you to feel safe: We all have different preferences when it comes to what we want and need in a studio environment, so allow yourself to take classes in multiple different spaces and tune into what is right for you.
5. Find teachers that are knowledgable and teach effective cueing: Having knowledgeable teachers that can help you find your edge in a safe manner and that can effectively cue to what you need is priceless and worth searching for. These teachers will able to hold space for you and help you tune deeper into your own body and breath so they can merely act as a guide while you strengthen your connection to self and use that connection to lead your practice.

Let’s Do Away With Mirrors Today

Mirrors have their place in society and I don’t see them going anywhere anytime soon, however, I don’t think that they belong in a yoga studio. They are disruptive to the deeper layers of yoga and affect our connection to self and reduce our ability to use our intuition and bodily responses to help guide our practice.

Our yoga spaces should be kept sacred, and mirrors breed too much judgement and comparison among those who come to a studio to practice. Let’s keep mirrors in the bathroom and dressing rooms and leave them out of yoga studios.