Why don’t more people who look like us, do yoga?
I guess the first point of clarification should be who do I mean by us? I mean, us. Those of us that are different than what we see in yoga magazines. Maybe we are brown. Maybe we are not thin. Maybe we are not young anymore. Maybe the us means a man. Or maybe it is a person who is transitioning or a survivor of a trauma or differently abled. Maybe we have never been athletic a day in our life! That is who I mean by us. The us that is not who you think of when you envision the typical yoga student. So why don’t people who look like us do yoga?
I definitely cannot speak for everyone, but I can speak to the questions I often get asked when I am introducing yoga to friends, family or patients. I have come up with the top three that I will mention here, and maybe you can give me some more in the comments.
The first question I get asked a lot is about yoga being a religion and whether or not it contradicts, usually Christianity. My first response is to point out that religion is a man made construct meant to offer boundaries or control. Religion and a relationships with your divine creator are two very separate things. Yoga has many roots in the Hindu religion and many of the texts in training are akin to the Christian Bible in their importance to the Hindu religion, but yoga itself is not inherently a religion. When we come back to the fact that religion is man made, then you can argue that yoga can be a religion, but really anything can be! Do you remember the Ohio guy who wanted to take his driver’s license photo with a metal spaghetti strainer on his head because that was a part of his religion? So the argument can be made that yoga can be a religion. The equal argument can be made that yoga is not a religion. It is all a matter of perspective and how you want to incorporate yoga into your life.
Many of the yoga teachings as mentioned, are based from sacred texts and they teach things like how to live and how to create a greater connection to the divine. This connection to the divine is not to only one version of the divine, it allows for you to find the connection to your divine. I found the teachings to explain to me in more direct terms, the concepts that were familiar to me in the Bible. The explanation and wording made concepts that were generalized become very very specific. And example would be the concept of treating others the way you would want to be treated, which is like the Yama to do no harm or non violence. The difference is that the Yama goes into great detail as to what doing no harm looks like. it is not a vague, “don’t hurt someone.” It is a very specific to say that non violence is compassion, mercy, peace and love towards all beings. It is meant to be a driving force behind a person’s daily decisions and behavior, including how you eat, the clothes you choose, considering how those clothes were made and the conditions of the workers who made the clothes. It is considering the things you buy and products you use and what they are made of, how they are made, how the artisans are treated that create them. It includes how you interact with the human and animal world and striving to be compassionate, to show mercy, to live in peace and love. It is specific and if followed, it produces and exponentially expansive version of treat others the way you want to be treated. Patanjali’s Yamas and Niyamas opened a new understanding of how I could be a better human and a better steward of my faith.
The second question I get often is related to the physical practice and the feeling that the body the person lives in, is not able to create those shapes successfully because of their size, shape, flexibility, strength or other perceived or real difference in ability. Some of that is kinda true. Yoga is hard. Yoga makes you deal with you. It makes you face things that you may not want to face. It makes you sit with your own stink and figure out if you want to hold on to that or let that shit go! It is true that day 1, you may not be able to do every pose perfectly. I am day 5, 110 and I am not able to do most poses perfectly. And to make things even more unpredictable, it varies. Some days I am a freaking yoga goddess rock star! Other days, I can barely stand on two flat feet! I have a torn ACL on my left knee, I healed fracture in my right elbow and both wrists, so I have limitations to how I can get into poses, but I can get into a lot of them, but sometimes I have to do it differently. But I still get the benefits. My yoga practice has strengthened my muscles around my knee such that my surgeon advised me against getting an ACL replacement surgery because my knee was so stable already! Yoga is not about perfection. It is not about comparison. It is not about headstands and instagram poses! Yoga is about you. It is a way to help you find you and still your mind, connecting your breath to your movement which has the benefit of building strength and creating balance both physically and mentally, increasing flexibility and providing aerobic exercise. So, yes, day 1, pigeon may not be accessible. Warrior three may feel impossible. The repetitive sun salutations may seem redundant and exhausting. But day 21, you will be able to do something you could not do on day 1. Day 121, you will feel confident doing a shape that seemed completely out of the realm of possibilities. Day 321, you will look different, you will feel different, you will think different, you will handle stress different, you will be different.
The third question I get asked a lot is about why does it cost so much? One yoga studio membership can be anywhere from $50-$100 but you can get a gym memberships for $10 nowadays. Now, we do have some things that we can discuss later about that, but for now, let’s just compare the cost.
The gym, going by yourself, can cost $10 a month. But you don’t have a trainer or a guide for that price. You don’t have a group of people who are working out and supporting you built into that price. Yes, other people are there and they might be doing the same thing as you and you might be able to convince friends to come with you. I guess, one of those friends might even be a personal trainer or someone who can help guide you, but the average Joe is showing up alone, working out alone and hopeful to get the results he is wanting for his $10. No-one is there to focus on motivating him, guiding him to what is the best next thing to do or watching him to make sure he doesn’t do something wrong or hurt himself.
For the cost at a yoga studio, you are getting a guide who is trained and educated at moving your through the poses in a way that makes sense and is designed to create whatever the purpose of the class is. Power class? You are going to sweat, get an aerobic exercise session, gain some strength, practice balance and then stretch. Restorative class? You are going to find that stillness and relaxation while gently stretching those muscles or fascia and letting them release with time as you start to release unhealthy thoughts and self talk. In a yoga studio, the guide is watching you and may adjust the class to the energy of the room or the needs of the students. The guide may even give you hands on adjustments or offer modifications to keep you safe. The guide gets to know you over time, and knows that Mrs. Jones has an issue with her knee, so they might try to not offer as many poses that keeps her on her knee or offer modifications or accessories that may help her knee. The guide leads you through some sort of integration or mediation that allows your mind to still, often offering you life hacks for you to focus on. Meditation, all by itself has been scientifically shown to increase the length and vitality of a person’s life, while decreasing the symptoms of depression and anxiety. It is a skill that you can use at your job, in a meeting or riding in the car with your new teenage driver!
After breaking a sweat and safely navigating you through poses meant to strengthen and stretch, creating space for you to challenge your own belief system and offering different ways to approach life, you guide then gently settles you into a savasana, allowing you to relax in ways that activate your parasympathetic nervous system, the part that calms you and suppresses the flight or fight response. This allows for your blood pressure, your heart rate, your breathing rate to all slow and for your body to experience a relaxation and pause that allows you to just be. It is almost as if you are suspended on a cloud in this amazing still and peaceful place where all falls back Into the space it where it is supposed to be.
You aren’t getting all that at a $10 a month gym.