Demystifying Yoga

What makes yoga, yoga? In the USA, our typical response is a stretching exercise. Is it more than that? That depends on your perspective. The literal definition of the Sanskrit word yoga is to yoke or to connect. So, what are you connecting? The common answer to this question is the yoga-trinity: mind, body, and soul.

Since the yoga-trinity of connection is extremely broad in its interpretation, yoga becomes a highly personal experience. There is no yoga police to correct you, and those that consider your interpretation of yoga to be wrong need to spend more time practicing yoga, frankly. My definition of yoga is any practice that emphasizes attitude over action where mental participation is quintessential. Since interpretations of yoga are so broad, many different schools of yoga are prevalent.

As a natural physician, I frequently recommend physical activities to my patients. When I offer yoga, I do so from the therapeutic perspective. Since there are so many styles of yoga, patients are often challenged to find appropriate classes. For example, a patient in need of yoga for reconditioning their body after an injury has different needs than a conditioned athlete.

Yoga in the USA has been popularized into an almost fad; schools of yoga developed in order to meet the marketing demands of this fad. Hot yoga, power yoga, flow yoga, and other blended terms like “broga” (Bro yoga for men) and yogalates (yoga and Pilates) became ripe for marketing. Due to this, many of these forms are extremely popular. Popularity sometimes leads to demand that leads to improperly taught instructors.

One of the most popular fads in yoga is to practice in a hot room. A yoga teacher from India named Bikram Choudhury developed a system consisting of 26 postures in a specific sequence practiced in a 104-degree (F) room where no water nor rest breaks are allowed. So, is the heat necessary? Many do have the mindset that if we sweat, it is a better workout. So the mental reason for the heat is valid, regardless, and let us keep in mind that it is hot in parts of India! However, the evidence says otherwise. According to a study published in Experimental Physiology in 2018 that compared hot vs. thermoneutral environments, there was a positive effect on heart health regardless of environmental temperature. The conclusion was “The primary finding from this investigation is that the hatha yoga postures in the Bikram yoga series produce similar enhancements in endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in healthy, middle-aged adults regardless of environmental temperature. These findings highlight the efficacy of yoga postures in producing improvements in vascular health and downplay the necessity of the heated practice environment in inducing vascular adaptations.”

In the USA, there is a huge emphasis on the physical aspects of yoga practice. This leads to a competitive mindset that can disconnect yoga students from their practice and bringing focus on external factors, which is the opposite of yoga’s definition. This raises the question, is competition inappropriate in yoga? The answer must be it depends, as is the usual answer when it comes to yoga. Since yoga is such an individual experience, to say competition is inappropriate is dubious. If self-competition or “keeping up with” fellow classmates helps students stay focused on their practice, then that is completely in line with the yoga paradigm of connecting the mind, body, and spirit. This brings up the idea of yoga judgement.

Yoga can be a physical practice, a spiritual practice, and a mental practice, so there is no universally consistent way to practice yoga. Since yoga can be studied on a superficial level as well as in extreme detail, there unfortunately does tend to be some judgmental attitudes between yoga communities. Some argue that if the philosophy is not based in a certain lineage then it is not yoga. This does stand to reason since we can only perceive the world through our lens. Those who only study power yoga may not consider gentle yoga to be yoga. Those who have bodies that are stiff are sometimes disrespected compared to the super bendy students. And since some of the fad forms of yoga do not emphasize connecting the mind, body, and spirit, they are not considered yoga by those who do practice/teach that way. The bottom line is that we are all human and the human condition is to recognize what is different.

Ultimately, most yoga forms emphasize the idea that we are all connected, on some level; to see past our differences and look within at what is the same about us. The Sanskrit word “namaste” is often used to welcome students. This phrase is an acknowledgement that the spirit/energy within one is the same within all. In my opinion, this is one of the most important aspects of a yoga practice. As I write this during the COVID-19 pandemic where our state has shut down gyms and yoga studios, this community connection practice is hard to maintain. While I have practiced yoga pretty intensely for 20 years, I found practicing without a community of people to be extremely challenging; I practiced less often since I was depressed because my social connection was absent. While I practice for my health and integrity, I was forced to face that I equally practice to be social and to connect with like-minded people. In this way, the practice evolves and opens our eyes to our current condition. Sometimes the connection we seek in yoga is not pleasant. One of my favorite teachers was known for saying “practicing yoga will bring up your stuff, rather you like it or not.”

The takeaway I intend is for those interested in yoga truly to self-reflect on what they seek. I fully admit that when I started yoga, I was only interested in 2 things: anger management and athleticism. I was not good at sports as a kid, so finding a physical activity where I could excel appealed greatly to me. I became an elite athlete and arguably in the top 1% of practitioners in the USA in my ability to successfully perform advanced poses. I was not interested in the spiritual, or what I called the foo-foo, side of yoga. Years into my practice, in order to reach my anger management goals, I opened my mind to more philosophical and spiritually driven practices. It worked! Does that mean I was not practicing yoga initially, since I was not open to all 3 aspects of the yoga-trinity? Of course not. We all must be given the freedom to explore and express our connections in our own time. Yoga is not a universal practice but can be a practice that connects us to the Universe.

Reference

Hunter, S., Laosiripisan, J., Elmenshawy, A, Tanaka, H. “Effects of yoga interventions practiced in heated and thermoneutral conditions on endothelium-dependent vasodilatation: The Bikram yoga heart study.” 2018 Mar 1. Experimental Physiology. 103(3):391-396.