When I started practicing yoga over 15 years ago, yoga was not that widely accepted. I got more than my fair share of raised eyebrows when I talked about it. Some thought yoga was a religion, a cult, or just some practice for contortionists. Fast forward to today and there’s a yoga studio on every other corner. Yoga is in churches, senior centers, and even progressive schools!
Yoga & Gimmicks On the Rise
Yoga is on the rise and so are the gimmicks. Since my friends and
family know I do yoga, I’m the first one they text when a new yoga fade pops up like yoga with baby goats, co-ed naked yoga, yoga while drinking beer…. the list goes on. They’re surprised that I’m not all that amused by it. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds fun. Fun is good and yes it will attract more people to try yoga which is great. But it can also create distractions.
Photograph courtesy the Little Goat Farm at the Lake.
Know Thyself
While I’m excited about the rise of yoga, I’m concerned about our tendency towards distraction and the mainstreaming of yoga to the point where it starts to lose its integrity and purpose. Meant to be more than a physical exercise, yoga was originally intended to be a practice for personal cultivation and growth.
Personal growth, starts with knowing yourself. Yoga philosophy holds that there is more to our true self than our bodies, jobs, and bank accounts and at our deepest core we are sacred, timeliness, connected, and blissful. Most of us have no idea this aspect even exists within.
Tune In With Yoga
Yoga was meant to draw our awareness inward to help us connect to this deeper aspect of our self, so we can explore and tap into our vastness and potential.
Yoga postures are meant to be sign posts to the self – a tool to help us tune in to ourselves. I’m not sold that drinking beers while doing yoga, baby goats or practicing while naked with others assists with this given the distractions it can cause. Instead of tuning inward, the focus is yet again drawn outward.
The Cost of Evolution
I get that yoga must evolve and reflect the culture it is being practiced in, but in the attempt to mainstream yoga, let’s not lose sight of the purpose of the practice.
Tune in, Turn on, Live UP!
Connect With Anika
About Me
