I’m moving into the culture part of this newsletter in anticipation of the podcast. Hope you like it! By the way, if you only want to receive the Yoga & Writing (or Yoga Culture) messages, you can set your preferences this way. Thursdays in the coming weeks, I will be going back and forth a little in these areas before I set into more of a schedule.
So, to kick off, I’m interested in what yoga is to you? How do you classify it, whether you practice regularly or not? Is it best described as one of these in the way you either understand it or choose to practice it…philosophy, sport, religion, lifestyle, ‘life’, mindset, fitness fad, unity, spiritual guidelines, ‘natural’, mindfulness? Or maybe a combo, or maybe something else!
I’ll be exploring what yoga is on the podcast in terms of its origins thousands of years ago as well as its evolution over the last century to its various (post)modern iterations, but I’m more interested today in your personal relationship with it. Let’s try to be curious about the way it may be re-signified for someone who benefits from yoga a certain way even if you think it should be defined as something else (which you can also feel free to explain). Your personal relationship might be linked with experience, education, or culture, for example. It would also be interesting to hear how you think this came to be.
I won’t give you my opinion today :) I’ve seen a lot of ideas about this topic and like the idea of us being able to talk about the possibilities rather than just blasting out what we think in an Instagram caption/meme. (I like IG, but I’ve seen this happen with yoga a lot!! I often don’t disagree with the statement but feel like it’s an unproductive way of talking about important ideas…)
A few articles you may want to consider or just peruse:
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For me, yoga is a fitness and conditioning exercise, as well as a sort of mindfulness-lite practice.
I have this chronic problem with my hip-flexors which are always too tight so I have a yoga routine to loosen up my hips, back, and upper legs. Need to do this after exercise or just if I’ve been sitting at a desk for too long, or otherwise I get pain.
I do get an element of mindfulness out of it, and love the mind-body connection it provides, but in truth my meditation practice is always better when I’m just sitting still. Would love to learn more about this aspect of it, as well as increasing my flexibility with more challenging movements, as I tend to be a bit lazy and just do the same routine every time.
It's great you found a way for yoga to help you so specifically - and through a whole body approach. This has also been life changing in the way I approach injury or 'body issues' (for me, it's the IT band!!).
You might be happy/surprised to hear that seated meditation is also a part of yoga. So sounds like you're doing a ton of it! :)
Very similar to how I look at it! I use pigeon pose to reset my hips whenever they feel iffy, and before any strenuous activity. I also enjoy how I feel grounded while doing yoga, like my mind and body have been brought back together and I'm focused on the here and now. But I don't tend to do yoga for that purpose, I tend to do it to help my body feel right.
I think that of all the different types of exercise I have ever tried, yoga is the most beneficial. I am not that experienced and I don't practice it properly these days so I am hoping that this substack might gradually get me doing it again. The beauty of it is that you can do it at any level and to any standard and get some benefit from it. As long as you don't overdo it or push your body too hard it is an activity that over time strengthens the body, making it less vulnerable to natural stresses associated with injury, bad posture etc, calming the mind and relieving stress. Also it's fun! When I started doing it I enjoyed trying out the postures and learning their names. Ideal for children. Definitely something that should be taught in all schools. Something the less "sporty" kids might take to! I haven't specifically delved into the spiritual element but from what I have seen it all makes good sense to me.
Thanks for kicking off the conversation and for such a thorough and personal answer :) Sounds like it's really working for you! That's great.
Schools is an interesting one - yes, lots of schools are teaching yoga. My son does it in kindergarten once a week with a certified teacher - who is also one of the kindergarten teachers & my teens used to have special days to choose things like yoga as part of a mindfulness program. But then there are also a bunch of schools banning yoga because of its relation to different religions. (Note: I'm not saying it's religious...but there is controversy around this aspect.)
It's a shame for the spiritual side to be treated as any kind of drawback. We need more spirituality these days, not less. Also learning about religion is a good thing, but I can see how it might cause problems in some contexts. That's sad but inevitable I suppose. Yoga's great.
Yes - agree on both accounts. I really wish I had a religious studies class when I was younger. I had friends who took me to different religious experiences ( a lot of bat mitzvahs for example!) but not a formal education. I believe all students at least have an intro class in the U.K. - is that right? Interestingly in the US I only encountered such class in secondary school when I did a small portion of my student teaching at a Catholic school. But the class was about all religions. So great.
Yes we all went to RE class once a week in secondary school when I was a kid, also World Studies. I'm not sure how they approach it now in schools. Although I am an atheist I learned things in the Religious Education class that gave us kids a cultural awareness as well as the basics of other religions than Christianity. There are many benefits to religion, some drawbacks, and I suppose an element of competition, leading to distrust of other religions. Faith, after all, means that you give yourself over to one doctrine. Buddhism makes a lot of sense to me. It's such an all-embracing faith.
I love the way Buddhism is more about questioning the world/self vs telling how to live.
Yeah, religion fascinates me, too, also as a sort of outsider, I guess. I would like that if the religion speaks to someone and helps them live their best life, then that's great. Of course, religion is also used for exclusionary purposes or worse at times. When it is a harmonious undertaking, it seems to be a positive form of community and culture mixed with faith. Simplifying :) You started in on a great topic!!
Religion is a way of making sense of the world, finding meaning and purpose. Most religions are full of good ideas but sometimes go astray when taken to extremes. As you say religion fosters a positive sense of community. I have always stayed away from tribes, religious or otherwise, because they sometimes discourage free thought, the freedom to discover and develop your beliefs. If you can't conform you can suffer rejection, so I find it more liberating to follow my own path for better or worse. I experience joy in connecting with others, and I would not choose to restrict my ability to do so on any way. As far as we know we are the only species on earth to have the capacity to contemplate the meaning of existence, but that might just be a consequence of our highly developed brains. I can't help thinking that we are actually of no importance whatsoever, just tiny atoms in a vast continuum, but since the chances of existing at all are so incredibly remote, it seems a bit churlish not to try to make the most of it and do a bit of good if we can.
You know what I said about your brain workouts...!?
Great post. I use yoga poses as a mindful movement stretch in the morning but also before running too. This really got me thinking about how I could use the flow of it a little more too. Thank you
The flow just means how I transition from one move to the next through the sequence. This then helps me (maybe not others) in a link between my mind and body is all.
I typically think of it as a philosophy. A lot of my background with it comes from the Integral Yoga work by Haridas Chaudhuri which probably explains why that's what it means for me ...
Love this! I ask myself the exact same question often too. Especially as a trained teacher who is not teaching, because I just don’t know what yoga is for me 😅 it’s my feminine embodiment practice that pulls me back into my body, out of my head or anywhere else my energy was stuck.
I don’t practice any transitional form of yoga and blend various modalities.
I love diving into ethics, cultural appropriation, the multi billion industry.
I feel like here in Europe the yoga industry is different. Schools don’t really teach it (yet). People stick to what is know more and are less open to exploring more outside of known yoga labels
Hi Carmen, thanks for these ideas! I guess to be exploring and considering the movement of energy within and outside your body is much more than thinking of yoga as asana practice. Lots of directions here :)
Agree that things are different in europe - do you mean vs the US/Canada or Asia? (I’m assuming). I live in Europe but am from the US and previously lived in Asia. Big differences for yoga!
Such an interesting question! Read the post earlier and been pondering...I can't really condense what yoga is to a word or notion such as "mindful" or "lifestyle", although it has elements of all the words you mention. I sometimes think that because I don't belong to any religion as such, I do get some kind of "spiritual" practice from yoga. I also find that I am terrible at mindfulness, meditation as such, and relaxing generally! So yoga fills those spaces for me as I find it a kind of moving meditation, which helps to switch off my brain for a while. But I also have to admit that I started yoga 20 years ago for a bad back after pregnancy and still see it as my main form of movement/exercise (along with walking). Both of these are what keep me sane, flexible and feel fitter generally.
That’s great, thank you Kate. I think a lot of people (in the West at least) first come to yoga because of injury like this and then find other reasons to practice. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
I began my own journey for the physical benefits of yoga. I was into staying fit and I also wanted some non-medical help for my asthma. Over time, I discovered the mental and spiritual aspects of yoga and found them to make the practice more meaningful. To me (and to many others!), yoga is not just exercise or physical training, but I imagine that after years of practice, it would be hard not to get into the other aspects of it. I think of each facet of yoga (mental, physical, spiritual) as threads: you can pull on one and the others will follow. I'm glad you included that article by yoga jala that talks about all the different influences, including culture and colonialism. I also think the article from the Guardian that you cited here is significant, although I think many people could have a very different experience than the one described there. I do sort of click with it, though because in my early days doing yoga in the 90s, I did feel surrounded by privileged, shallow people at times, but those are only a segment of the yoga-practicing demographic. I think yoga is a lens that we can use and through that lens we can view our own religions/spiritualities, cultures, and selves in a more wholistic light. Yoga, in my opinion, can be for anyone and everyone given the core principles are practiced, understood, and embodied. If a person finds that by pulling the physical thread, alright! If another finds it by pulling on the spiritual thread, that can work, too. Not to say that there won't be people that only stick with the physical aspect, but the potential for a multi-faceted practice is always there. How's that for a long-winded answer?
I love this idea about the lens. It’s often the way I view ethics and this makes sense in this way. And I love the way you describe pulling on threads. Thanks for all the great ideas, Jacquie!
This is such a great question Kathleen! And I've loved reading the responses so far 🙏
I started yoga a few years ago and it was mainly because I felt I needed something to counteract my running and strength training. But now I view it as so much more than that. Sure I like to feel mobile, flexible and balanced, and I love seeing the progress of improvement, but it also keeps me grounded and helps me to block everything else out around me in a way that other things can't. I honestly can't imagine not having yoga in my life now. I've more recently started to take more interest on a deeper level and not just seeing it as a way to move my body. I'm interested to see where the journey takes me 💜
Great Louisa, I've just checked out your newsletter :)
Thanks for all the ideas! I think this point about our relationship with and understanding of yoga continuing to evolve is a really good one. It's also great to explore it from a personal level (through writing).
Thank you for checking it out. Yes, I love to write about Yoga. It helps to sort my thoughts and feelings. Writing can be a very powerful mindfulness practice in itself, for sure!
For me, yoga is a fitness and conditioning exercise, as well as a sort of mindfulness-lite practice.
I have this chronic problem with my hip-flexors which are always too tight so I have a yoga routine to loosen up my hips, back, and upper legs. Need to do this after exercise or just if I’ve been sitting at a desk for too long, or otherwise I get pain.
I do get an element of mindfulness out of it, and love the mind-body connection it provides, but in truth my meditation practice is always better when I’m just sitting still. Would love to learn more about this aspect of it, as well as increasing my flexibility with more challenging movements, as I tend to be a bit lazy and just do the same routine every time.
It's great you found a way for yoga to help you so specifically - and through a whole body approach. This has also been life changing in the way I approach injury or 'body issues' (for me, it's the IT band!!).
You might be happy/surprised to hear that seated meditation is also a part of yoga. So sounds like you're doing a ton of it! :)
Thanks for the personal response, Mikey.
Very similar to how I look at it! I use pigeon pose to reset my hips whenever they feel iffy, and before any strenuous activity. I also enjoy how I feel grounded while doing yoga, like my mind and body have been brought back together and I'm focused on the here and now. But I don't tend to do yoga for that purpose, I tend to do it to help my body feel right.
Pigeon is such a wonderful pose with so many nice variations!
It's great to have the resources to do what's right for your body.
Thanks for your comments, Lorelei!
I think that of all the different types of exercise I have ever tried, yoga is the most beneficial. I am not that experienced and I don't practice it properly these days so I am hoping that this substack might gradually get me doing it again. The beauty of it is that you can do it at any level and to any standard and get some benefit from it. As long as you don't overdo it or push your body too hard it is an activity that over time strengthens the body, making it less vulnerable to natural stresses associated with injury, bad posture etc, calming the mind and relieving stress. Also it's fun! When I started doing it I enjoyed trying out the postures and learning their names. Ideal for children. Definitely something that should be taught in all schools. Something the less "sporty" kids might take to! I haven't specifically delved into the spiritual element but from what I have seen it all makes good sense to me.
Thanks for kicking off the conversation and for such a thorough and personal answer :) Sounds like it's really working for you! That's great.
Schools is an interesting one - yes, lots of schools are teaching yoga. My son does it in kindergarten once a week with a certified teacher - who is also one of the kindergarten teachers & my teens used to have special days to choose things like yoga as part of a mindfulness program. But then there are also a bunch of schools banning yoga because of its relation to different religions. (Note: I'm not saying it's religious...but there is controversy around this aspect.)
Thanks again for your ideas this morning!
It's a shame for the spiritual side to be treated as any kind of drawback. We need more spirituality these days, not less. Also learning about religion is a good thing, but I can see how it might cause problems in some contexts. That's sad but inevitable I suppose. Yoga's great.
Yes - agree on both accounts. I really wish I had a religious studies class when I was younger. I had friends who took me to different religious experiences ( a lot of bat mitzvahs for example!) but not a formal education. I believe all students at least have an intro class in the U.K. - is that right? Interestingly in the US I only encountered such class in secondary school when I did a small portion of my student teaching at a Catholic school. But the class was about all religions. So great.
Yes we all went to RE class once a week in secondary school when I was a kid, also World Studies. I'm not sure how they approach it now in schools. Although I am an atheist I learned things in the Religious Education class that gave us kids a cultural awareness as well as the basics of other religions than Christianity. There are many benefits to religion, some drawbacks, and I suppose an element of competition, leading to distrust of other religions. Faith, after all, means that you give yourself over to one doctrine. Buddhism makes a lot of sense to me. It's such an all-embracing faith.
I love the way Buddhism is more about questioning the world/self vs telling how to live.
Yeah, religion fascinates me, too, also as a sort of outsider, I guess. I would like that if the religion speaks to someone and helps them live their best life, then that's great. Of course, religion is also used for exclusionary purposes or worse at times. When it is a harmonious undertaking, it seems to be a positive form of community and culture mixed with faith. Simplifying :) You started in on a great topic!!
Religion is a way of making sense of the world, finding meaning and purpose. Most religions are full of good ideas but sometimes go astray when taken to extremes. As you say religion fosters a positive sense of community. I have always stayed away from tribes, religious or otherwise, because they sometimes discourage free thought, the freedom to discover and develop your beliefs. If you can't conform you can suffer rejection, so I find it more liberating to follow my own path for better or worse. I experience joy in connecting with others, and I would not choose to restrict my ability to do so on any way. As far as we know we are the only species on earth to have the capacity to contemplate the meaning of existence, but that might just be a consequence of our highly developed brains. I can't help thinking that we are actually of no importance whatsoever, just tiny atoms in a vast continuum, but since the chances of existing at all are so incredibly remote, it seems a bit churlish not to try to make the most of it and do a bit of good if we can.
You know what I said about your brain workouts...!?
Yoga is something that I don't do but would like to do. 😳
Not sure if I'm qualified to be leaving any comments here yet 😅
Thanks for giving it a go with us here!
So...”enigma”? 🙃
Yes, perfect. Enigma. Let's stick with enigma 😄
Great post. I use yoga poses as a mindful movement stretch in the morning but also before running too. This really got me thinking about how I could use the flow of it a little more too. Thank you
Thanks for your experience, Jon!
I think if I went back to coaching runners, I would definitely include some yoga for both mind and body. Intrigued also by your flow idea...
The flow just means how I transition from one move to the next through the sequence. This then helps me (maybe not others) in a link between my mind and body is all.
Nice!
I think this applies to running and writing, too...
I typically think of it as a philosophy. A lot of my background with it comes from the Integral Yoga work by Haridas Chaudhuri which probably explains why that's what it means for me ...
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/chaudhurilectures/
Thanks Kathryn. That is a great online resource. Do you use yoga philosophy in your work on art and mental health?
I don't specifically focus on it or call it that but it underpins a lot of the framework of my thinking.
Love this! I ask myself the exact same question often too. Especially as a trained teacher who is not teaching, because I just don’t know what yoga is for me 😅 it’s my feminine embodiment practice that pulls me back into my body, out of my head or anywhere else my energy was stuck.
I don’t practice any transitional form of yoga and blend various modalities.
I love diving into ethics, cultural appropriation, the multi billion industry.
I feel like here in Europe the yoga industry is different. Schools don’t really teach it (yet). People stick to what is know more and are less open to exploring more outside of known yoga labels
Hi Carmen, thanks for these ideas! I guess to be exploring and considering the movement of energy within and outside your body is much more than thinking of yoga as asana practice. Lots of directions here :)
Agree that things are different in europe - do you mean vs the US/Canada or Asia? (I’m assuming). I live in Europe but am from the US and previously lived in Asia. Big differences for yoga!
Oh yes it’s way more than just a physical practice. It ties in with everything else and makes me mad when it’s just taught as a gym replacement.
And yes I meant these regions Europe vs us / Canada mostly.
Such an interesting question! Read the post earlier and been pondering...I can't really condense what yoga is to a word or notion such as "mindful" or "lifestyle", although it has elements of all the words you mention. I sometimes think that because I don't belong to any religion as such, I do get some kind of "spiritual" practice from yoga. I also find that I am terrible at mindfulness, meditation as such, and relaxing generally! So yoga fills those spaces for me as I find it a kind of moving meditation, which helps to switch off my brain for a while. But I also have to admit that I started yoga 20 years ago for a bad back after pregnancy and still see it as my main form of movement/exercise (along with walking). Both of these are what keep me sane, flexible and feel fitter generally.
That’s great, thank you Kate. I think a lot of people (in the West at least) first come to yoga because of injury like this and then find other reasons to practice. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
I began my own journey for the physical benefits of yoga. I was into staying fit and I also wanted some non-medical help for my asthma. Over time, I discovered the mental and spiritual aspects of yoga and found them to make the practice more meaningful. To me (and to many others!), yoga is not just exercise or physical training, but I imagine that after years of practice, it would be hard not to get into the other aspects of it. I think of each facet of yoga (mental, physical, spiritual) as threads: you can pull on one and the others will follow. I'm glad you included that article by yoga jala that talks about all the different influences, including culture and colonialism. I also think the article from the Guardian that you cited here is significant, although I think many people could have a very different experience than the one described there. I do sort of click with it, though because in my early days doing yoga in the 90s, I did feel surrounded by privileged, shallow people at times, but those are only a segment of the yoga-practicing demographic. I think yoga is a lens that we can use and through that lens we can view our own religions/spiritualities, cultures, and selves in a more wholistic light. Yoga, in my opinion, can be for anyone and everyone given the core principles are practiced, understood, and embodied. If a person finds that by pulling the physical thread, alright! If another finds it by pulling on the spiritual thread, that can work, too. Not to say that there won't be people that only stick with the physical aspect, but the potential for a multi-faceted practice is always there. How's that for a long-winded answer?
I love this idea about the lens. It’s often the way I view ethics and this makes sense in this way. And I love the way you describe pulling on threads. Thanks for all the great ideas, Jacquie!
This is such a great question Kathleen! And I've loved reading the responses so far 🙏
I started yoga a few years ago and it was mainly because I felt I needed something to counteract my running and strength training. But now I view it as so much more than that. Sure I like to feel mobile, flexible and balanced, and I love seeing the progress of improvement, but it also keeps me grounded and helps me to block everything else out around me in a way that other things can't. I honestly can't imagine not having yoga in my life now. I've more recently started to take more interest on a deeper level and not just seeing it as a way to move my body. I'm interested to see where the journey takes me 💜
This idea of progress with yoga is so great. The way we change over time and the way we feel about the changes. Thanks for your reflection, Lyndsay!
Thank you for this post, and for all of the relatable answers!
I agree with so much that has already been said.
Yoga keeps me grounded, otherwise I have a tendency to get all up in my head and carried away to wherever my thoughts may lead.
I consider Yoga to be a lifestyle.
I respect and am seeking to fully understand the holistic aspects of the practice - which I know is a lifetime’s work.
In short, I love it.
It saved me when I first connected with it and now I write my own Substack all about Yoga, too!
Great Louisa, I've just checked out your newsletter :)
Thanks for all the ideas! I think this point about our relationship with and understanding of yoga continuing to evolve is a really good one. It's also great to explore it from a personal level (through writing).
Thank you for checking it out. Yes, I love to write about Yoga. It helps to sort my thoughts and feelings. Writing can be a very powerful mindfulness practice in itself, for sure!
Also, some of the links you included here are great! Especially the Guardian piece. Thanks :)
[√] All of the above and below :)
Love this answer!