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When a yoga teacher instructs students to take a deep breath before releasing every part, they’re referring to the discharge of stress—not the unloading of money, automobile keys, and bank cards. Yet the latter is strictly what’s been happening at yoga studios, which have been hit hard in recent times by thefts.

At PC Yoga Collective in Park City, Utah, as an example, owner Jenn Solomon explains how a lady signed up and signed in for a yoga class using a fake name, but said she had to depart to make a phone call just before class began. The girl allegedly took automobile keys and wallets from bags within the lobby. It wasn’t until after class that students realized their things were missing.

Solomon says the lady who burglarized her studio had also burglarized three other studios that very same day. Shortly after, two suspects were arrested for the thefts, and the stolen items were present in their possession, in line with an article in TownLift.

Thefts at yoga studios aren’t recent. This scenario has been playing out for years, often following an identical pattern. Interestingly, the thief has most frequently been female, and sometimes she gets away with using the stolen bank cards before the owner even realizes they’re missing.

Recently, a 24-year-old woman was accused of stealing a handbag containing an iPhone and bank card at a South Miami yoga studio and occurring a $14,000 shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton. The costs were later dropped because of a possible misidentification via security cameras, but that doesn’t assuage the yoga studio—and people burglarized—from the struggle of feeling victimized.

Solomon explains that students should feel secure and contained in a yoga studio. “You naturally let your guard down,” she says. Although her studio staff in Park City had often locked the front door when class was in session, they’re far more diligent about it now. Nevertheless it’s been a difficult transition.

“You should let everyone in,” she explains. “It’s a healing practice. I need to ask you in and hold you.”

But because of the occasional theft, many yoga students, instructors, and studio managers are grappling with the way to be inclusive of everyone who walks through the door, yet concurrently cautious with students’ belongings.

The Unlucky Reality

Isaac Robertson, a private trainer in Indianapolis who has been practicing yoga for years, says he has been present at various studios when items have gone missing during class. Today, Robertson feels nervous when studios don’t offer lockers. It’s less an absence of trust in fellow practitioners, he explains, and more a general feeling.

“And not using a secure place to store your belongings, it’s natural to be a bit on edge, wondering in case your stuff is secure whilst you’re deep right into a yoga pose,” he says.

Others say they aren’t nervous in any respect because, well, it’s yoga.

Kat Pither, the founding father of Yogi Bare in London, says theft at a yoga studio never crosses her mind. “It could sound a bit ‘Disney,’ but I genuinely consider and trust that yoga studios embody the spirit of yoga, extending to everyone who enters, associates with, attends class, and works for a studio,” she says. “The concept of asteya (not stealing) is a state of being where we don’t want for more and accept what’s ours and freely shared.” It’s difficult for a lot of who practice yoga to assume that stealing would occur.

But while yoga spaces must be sacred spaces where those that enter reflect the values of yoga, that isn’t guaranteed, and yoga studios are creatively addressing what they’ll do to make their spaces inviting…but not too inviting.

What Studios Are Doing to Deter Stealing

Unlike traditional gyms, many yoga studios lack lockers or other spaces where yoga students can lock their personal items. This is usually because of space constraints. Adding lockers to studios is dear and never all the time feasible for a lot of small businesses. Also, the yoga community tends to be a more trusting crowd, and a few studio owners are concerned that the presence of lockers insinuates an absence of trust.

As a substitute, many studio owners try to resolve the issue by locking the front door during class, adding security cameras, or hiring additional front desk staff. Solomon says that following the thefts last winter, if someone needs to depart class early at her studio, the teacher personally walks the scholar out the locked door so that they can avoid any issues. And if the studio is burglarized, many house owners reach out to nearby studios to warn them of potential robberies occurring in the realm. It’s a yoga family kind of thing. When one gets hit, all of them feel it.

Many studios are asking students to be more diligent in keeping watch of their belongings. Eloise Skinner, a yoga instructor in London, says she’s noticed an increase in warning notices in changing rooms telling students that thefts have recently taken place. And Brett Larkin, the founding father of Uplifted Yoga and creator of the upcoming book, Yoga Life: Habits, Poses and Breathwork to Channel Joy Amidst the Chaos, says that in urban studios, she’s began keeping her valuables next to her mat or under her towel nearby.

“I all the time encourage students and instructors to be on-guard, irrespective of how well they know the teacher, the scholars, or the space,” says Tianna Faye Soto, a yoga and meditation instructor in Latest York City. When she takes a category at an unfamiliar studio, she asks the front desk where the perfect place is to securely leave her belongings, and whether the studio can be locked or supervised. If she’s not comfortable with the situation, she brings her valuables into class along with her, leaving them on the side of the room and out of the way in which so that they’re not a distraction to others.

As Soto advises, it’s safest to maintain your items in a locked place or, inside reason, within the practice space. An alternative choice is leaving non-essential valuables in a locked automobile or at home. Although thieves can’t steal your inner peace, they’ll take your wallet. And that may temporarily put a damper in your namaste.

About Our Contributor
Danielle Braff is a contract author living in Chicago along with her two children, two cats and a dog. When she’s not writing, she will be found reading, traveling or baking. A graduate of Oxford University in England, she is a large Anglophile, and has big dreams of moving to the Cotswolds. Her perfect day consists of ample doses of coffee, tea, books and naps. You might take a look at her other stories at www.Daniellebraff.com.