Studio Ownership, Heartbreak & the Right to Evolve — With Jessica Patterson (Part 2)

This is the conversation Rebecca wishes she could have had when she owned her studio. In Part 2 of this conversation with Jessica Patterson, they move from theory into the deeply personal territory of what it actually costs to own a yoga studio — and why the industry has made studio owners into villains when many of them started this work trying to build a sanctuary. Jessica and Rebecca talk about the shift in power dynamics that comes with ownership and the isolation it creates, the heartbreak of telling a community you've evolved when they've frozen you in a particular moment in time, and the difference between self-agency and self-determination in an economic climate that nobody chose. They also get into the latent shame that comes with business difficulty, why blaming individual owners for systemic problems is both unfair and counterproductive, and the simple but radical truth that you don't have to keep doing the things you're good at. One of Rebecca's favorite conversations on the podcast. It earns that.

Rebecca SebastianSeptember 17, 2026yoga studio owner, yoga studio ownership mental health, yoga business heartbreak, yoga studio closing, yoga professional evolution, Jessica Patterson, working in yoga podcast, yoga studio isolation, yoga community expectations, yoga dharma, yoga teacher evolution, yoga small business, yoga boutique studio, yoga studio franchise competition, yoga studio owner supportComment

Purity Culture, Authentic Yoga & Which Bodies Come to Matter — With Jessica Patterson (Part 1)

Jessica Patterson is doing something rare — she's working through a PhD in religious studies focused on yoga and yoga bodies while remaining fully embedded in the yoga professional world as a teacher, studio owner, and trainer. In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, she and Rebecca get into the ideas that don't get enough airtime in the industry: which bodies come to matter in yoga spaces, how proximity to authenticity functions as a marketing strategy, and the purity culture that quietly shapes how yoga professionals judge each other and themselves. They talk about Orientalism — the idea that the East is pure and the West corrupt — and why that framing isn't just intellectually lazy, it's actively harmful to the profession. They get into the difference between training yoga teachers and training yoga performers, the franchising of bodies and teaching styles, and the mob mentality that can emerge when cultural appropriation anxiety meets social media. This one is dense, honest, and worth every minute.

Rebecca SebastianSeptember 10, 2026yoga purity culture, yoga authenticity, cultural appropriation yoga, yoga academic perspective, Jessica Patterson, working in yoga podcast, yoga bodies, yoga Orientalism, yoga teacher training, yoga performance vs teaching, yoga mob mentality, real yoga debate, yoga and caste, yoga religious studies, yoga industry cultureComment