Emily Byrd 1/26/26 Emily Byrd 1/26/26

The Question of Spiritual Sell-Out’s

I Sold My Yoga Studio Because I Refused to Sell My Soul

For years, I poured my heart into a space that was meant to be sacred.

But the deeper I went into my own embodiment… the more I woke up to how the system demanded things that didn’t align:

… Pack the schedule

… Chase the metrics

… Prioritize growth over integrity

… Water down the teachings to “meet people where they are” even if it meant never asking them to rise

It began to feel like I was running a business fighting for its soul, not holding a sacred space with spiritual reciprocity.

The business was ‘working’ but my soul was not okay.

And so, after 3 years… I walked away.

Not because I didn’t believe in the work, but because I believed in it too much to keep letting capitalism dictate its form.

Emily Byrd 1/23/26 Emily Byrd 1/23/26

You can memorize scripts. You can buy templates. You can brand yourself as a mentor, teacher, guide…

But energy doesn’t lie. Nervous systems tell all. The body, yours and your clients or students, always knows when something is missing.

And what’s missing is usually this:

Time. Mentorship. Embodiment. Lived experience.

Not performance, polish or hustle.

What’s missing is the depth that only comes from walking the path again and again and again, until it rewires you.