THE GIMMICK OF YOGA

Recently, Yoga Journal did a highlight on Kaiut Yoga. I started to flip right past the article, but the word ‘chiropractic’ caught my eye and I decided to give it a read. Kaiut yoga is almost identical to the style of yoga I was trained in, Samatva yoga. The practice consists of three distinct sections, a warm up, a main practice sequence and a closing sequence. The main practice sequence centers around poses that your body needs in that moment. It focuses on the parts of the body that are tight and lack free movement. Instead of contorting the body to fit into the pose, you make the pose fit the body. Which is also one of the main elements to Samatva yoga. The idea of Samatva yoga is that your practice is a balance to our daily lives. It is way to lesson the damage we do to ourselves with our usual daily activities, like sitting at a computer or microscope all day. Another aspect important in Samatva yoga is a twenty minute savasana (final relaxation) and just the other day there was an article about the benefits of a twenty minute savasana in the New York Times.

I moved into a very vinyasa/Ashtanga like yoga community. The studios I approached for teaching jobs mostly just dismissed me when I told them about Samatva yoga. I remember telling one studio owner about always ending my class with a fifteen to twenty minute savasana and she laughed at me. She couldn’t believe I would only spend about half an hour with the asana practice before moving on to final relaxation. I believe her words were “that’s a bit excessive.” I have had yoga teachers attempt to manipulate me into a yoga pose that is not right for my body. Every time I tried to explain that I don’t do poses where I don’t have joint on joint alignment, they would frown and walk away. I would be left alone with an inner commentary about how they think I can’t do a headstand and I’m using my wonky arms as an excuse. I’d have a whole conversation in my head about how I can totally do a headstand, but I don’t want to have achy elbows for the next three days because in order to have ‘proper’ alignment, I have to hyper-extend by elbows. It would make me feel wrong. I would question myself and think maybe I am just making excuses. Maybe I don’t do handstands because I’m weak. The dismissals and the self doubt played a big part in why I never really pushed to be part of the yoga community here. I have a couple of teachers I will work with. They know me; they know my background. Both of them know how to challenge me in my practice without asking me to compromise my safety. I miss their faces right now, but I have hopes for the Spring and Summer.

Yoga is no different than any other group exercise or sport. There is an undercurrent of focus on being the ‘right’ shape. B.K.S. Iyengar, a legend in the yoga community, was notorious for his focus on the right body shape. I heard a fellow yoga teacher tell a story about meeting Iyengar at a conference. Iyengar had given a talk then afterward there was a reception line where he greeted people in the audience. When the yoga teacher got his turn with Iyengar, he told Iyengar how much he admired him and that he himself had been practicing Iyengar’s style of yoga for years. Iyengar looked the man up and down and then patted the man on the belly as he said “It looks like you still have a lot of work to do.” All of us listening to him tell the story, gasped in shock, but this was quintessential Iyengar. You have to understand, Iyengar is more than a legend in the yoga community. He is considered to be one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world. His style of teaching inspired much of the styles of yoga we see here in the US. The teaching is that you make your body fit the pose and with today’s American ego this gets pushed to the extreme. The practice becomes all about perfection and sometimes even competition.

That is not true yoga.

There’s been a big shift in the last year to make yoga more inclusive. Well, of course. We’re seeing this everywhere, but Yoga Journal has been really pushing it in their magazines this year. There have been models of all race and genders appearing on the cover. They have featured yogis with disabilities, yogis of all ages and sizes. Still…I can’t help but think this a little bit of a too little too late situation. It feels like an attempt to jump on a bandwagon and I can’t help but feel a little bit sour over it. I also can’t help but feel slightly resentful. I received my training in teaching a balanced yoga practice eleven years ago and Yoga Journal is just now starting to feature my kind of practice. Yoga’s inclusion problem is deep and it is going to require more than just hanging a sign that reads “Everyone is welcome!” to fix it. This inclusion problem is going to require many current yoga teachers to open their minds real wide and maybe be a little less dismissive to alternative ways of teaching.