Yoga to Ease Anxiety
  • Home
  • Books
  • Class Plans, Essays
  • About Me
  • Blog

Yoga and Cultural Appropriation (Part 1)

2/15/2017

3 Comments

 
PictureDiscontinued Lululemon branded mala, which sold for $108.
An author named Rachel Carter recently asked for my thoughts on yoga and cultural appropriation. Here's how I responded. I'm hoping she has return questions, where I'll delve into this further. There's a lot more to say than what's covered here.

I’m happy to talk about yoga and cultural appropriation. I have only my own experience to offer, which I've written briefly here. If you have further questions, please feel free to send them.

I would recommend contacting Carol Horton and Matthew Remski, who would both be far more erudite than me on this topic.

(Here's my story.)
For my undergraduate degree, I dual majored in Religious Studies and Psychology. The Religious Studies department at the school I went to, Northern Arizona University, took a history of religions approach. That means I studied the development of religions: how they started and grew. Each religion, each culture, was considered with the utmost respect.

That’s how it came to pass that, when I first studied the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali under Bruce Sullivan (a student of Mircea Eliade and the author of the Historical Dictionary of Hinduism, Sacred Objects in Secular Spaces, and others), I was fully convinced that yoga in the U.S. was a thoughtless appropriation, a weak caricature of one of Patanjali’s eight limbs. For the next ten years, I would have nothing to do with it.

Then I developed a massive combination of anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety grew into panic disorder, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and finally agoraphobia. I tried everything to get better, especially for my son who was fast becoming a toddler and needed a functioning mother.

Everything I read about anxiety, which was a substantial amount due to my academic bent, said do yoga. After years of suffering and suicidal ideation, I finally gave up my perhaps self-righteous animosity toward American yoga and tried it. And yoga made all the difference. Because of yoga I was able to get into treatment. That whole story is in Yoga to Ease Anxiety.

But I was still wary of cultural appropriation. So I determined to learn everything I could about how yoga started and grew, and how it came to be what it is now in the U.S. It took five years for me to feel like I had a decent grasp on the subject, and From the Vedas to Vinyasa is the result.

Now I am conflicted. I love yoga. I love the history, the philosophy, the depth of yoga. And I love the practice of yoga, even knowing that modern postural yoga is a far cry from what the ancient or even medieval yogis practiced. It gave me my life back and provides me stability every day. 

But at this point in time, right now today, I can’t stand and do not want to be associated with the business of yoga. The commodification and exploitation of the practice makes me angry and anxious if I spend too much time thinking about it.

I absolutely believe that the practice and study of yoga can benefit those who are called to it in this crazy, stressed-out age. There are great teachers out there, who can help people develop a worthwhile practice that will in turn help them mature emotionally and spiritually and find equanimity.

However, it’s a buyer-beware situation. In stripping yoga down in order to commercialize it and make it appealing to the masses, the yoga industry is peddling a form of yoga that can end up being sped up, competitive, body shaming, and devoid of substance, as well as ego-aggrandizing rather than ego-taming. What passes as yoga in many gyms and studios can do as much harm as good, physically and mentally. (The Science of Yoga by Wm. J. Broad and Hell-Bent by Benjamin Lorr provide two very different perspectives on this.)

I continue to practice and teach in a style that used to be the norm in the U.S., when yoga was counter-cultural, but is now far slower and less acrobatic than the types of yoga that are currently most popular. Other than that, I am growing more reserved about my interactions with modern yoga culture and focusing instead on turning the effects of my yoga practice toward building a quiet, peaceful life of love, joy, and creativity.

3 Comments
Catriona O'Curry link
2/15/2017 07:50:03 pm

Fantastic, Amy!!!

We need to catch up again soooon! Xx

Reply
Marcia
2/15/2017 10:16:50 pm

Amy,
This is great! I can relate to how you feel especially the conflicted part. You are amazing, and you've come a long way. You just have to do what you do. The practice of Yoga is about the internal experience and about embracing what is. That which is not true or authentic within the practice will fall away eventually. Meaning: That which is trendy will fade; That which is true will remain.

Love you-
Marcia

Reply
Mary Somers
2/17/2017 12:15:39 pm

Amy - you have once again provided Grist for the Mill... I have just begun to re-enter the commercial realm of yoga. A while back, I swore off retreats, gear, new age teachings and all of the trappings of promoting yoga. I needed to take the time to evaluate and celebrate why I had sought out yoga decades ago. I had to determine what was true for me and what I could honorably offer students as a teacher. I have now established what I value in the yoga that is offered and I seek out only what resonates with my values. I seek teachers who are able to provide what I need to learn. I have established my physical practice to enable me to maintain my health while continuing to move with purpose and strength. And, I continue seeking deeper and deeper states of meditation. At this point, I have absolutely no problem dispensing with anything that does not serve. I am however, deeply grateful for the commercialism of yoga as without the (sometimes shameless) promotion many would never find their way to yoga.
Deepest Shanti, my friend... and thank you
Mary

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Yoga Talk

    Short thoughts applying yogic philosophy to our time on the mat and to everyday life.

    Archives

    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All
    Anxiety
    Asana
    Body Acceptance
    Brains
    Letting Go
    Love
    Modern Mystic Book Club
    Peace
    Philosophy
    Yoga Basics

    RSS Feed

Yoga to Ease Anxiety
© 2017 Amy Vaughn 
Proudly powered by Weebly