On the Future of Yoga Festival Toronto

Matthew Remski speaks about the future of Yoga Festival Toronto and the Toronto yoga community. Matthew’s passion for Yoga Community Toronto developed from his search for a sense of self through yoga, meditation, and his community. Amidst a significant turning point on his spiritual path, Matthew realized that he had previously been focusing much of his energy on internalizing the art of his practice. This realization, coupled with a somewhat hollow and overstimulated feeling after attending another conventional yoga show, inspired Matthew, his partner, and close friend to develop Yoga Community Toronto. Along with other essential inclusion criteria in Yoga Community Toronto’s framework, was an emphasis on activism as opposed to solely introspection. This criterion was a major component in the framework, due to Matthew’s vivid experience of feeling isolated from his community as a result of internalization. Therefore, he felt compelled to use his a-ha moment as an opportunity to become connected to his world, and to encourage members of Toronto’s yoga community to follow lead. Accordingly, since 2006, Yoga Community Toronto has embraced the opportunity to engage in social and activist movements that have meaningful implications for the community.