A “yoga booty” is not a goal of yoga. Such an outcome is not in line with the original intention of yoga. The marketing around this idea is precisely why the proliferation of yoga hasn’t resulted in vastly reduced stats on anxiety and depression; we’ve made the liberating holistic practice into a competitive and soul-diminishing shtick.
Traditional yogis may have had toned abs and chiseled pecs or whatever’s going these days, but it wasn’t because of yoga. They led active lifestyles. Yoga originated because the Sarasvati River made an excellent place to settle and these human beings had space to thrive. They began to notice everything – how widespread mental anguish was, the way the mind fluctuated on its own, and the fact that if one tried to stop the goings on in their own heads, it simply couldn’t be accomplished. They noticed that if they moved their bodies, aligned different points in a certain way, and learned to soften, they were able to quiet their minds enough to think softly about just one thing, and in doing that, they had access to a higher consciousness that they came to realize had been there the entire time. That is what yoga is for – to manage energy in order to quiet the mind for meditation. On any given day, that practice can fluctuate based on where you are.
If you’re like the 99% of people who think they fall into a small group who can’t meditate, I’m happy to break it to you – we’re all in the same boat. And meditation simply isn’t what most people think it is. Calming the body using the many practices of yoga, like breathwork, daily hygiene rituals, deep adherence to an internal and external moral system, allows us then to practice withdrawal from the senses by focusing on one thing. That thing can vary. When our minds inevitably show us their agenda, which differs from what we want, we begin to accept it. We accept the existence of an entity within our experience that was developed over years or decades to protect us, and is simply a result of what has been said or done around us. It wants to protect us, but doesn’t possess discernment between real and imagined threats. So, we accept this, we simply observe the activity of this entity, until we recognize – “that voice isn’t me. I am listening to the voice. I don’t even like what that voice is saying, so it can’t be me.” This is to begin the process of awakening, and this is yoga.
When yoga came to the west, it was fractured and split into compartments. We now have breathwork teachers, meditation teachers, yoga teachers teaching the physical practice with hints of the other elements, and a massive studentship within yoga who are completely unaware of the existence of the moral observances and rituals that are meant to form the foundation of their work. So many come to yoga for peace and merely get a gently cued workout with rest at the end. There is so much more.
So, keep your yoga booty. If I strive for a change in my body, I will achieve it with fitness. Yoga is not for that purpose. Yoga, when woven into the fabric of our lives like a thread, eventually affecting all aspects of life, can be everything. And you don’t need to be a yoga teacher to experience this dedication; until recently, and perhaps still in some households, the holistic lifestyle that is called yoga has been practiced in India by average people with jobs, modest budgets, and responsibilities. When it’s woven into the culture or heritage, yoga is common sense.
I have practiced yoga in some form for decades. I’ve taken public classes, read books, and maintained my own practice. Somehow, in all of this, I wasn’t informed of the morals and rituals of the yogic system until I trained as a teacher. I thought breathwork was simply something a teacher might sometimes offer the class from their own experience. And I never knew the importance of any visual cues given. Having learned these things and applied them to my personal practice, my daily work doesn’t even look the same as it did. Everyday students being exposed to these ideas is how yoga begins to create the impact that allowed it to spread across India all those years ago, to become embedded in the culture. The spirit of yoga is in knowing why we do it, and this encapsulates the new way. This is how yoga liberates humanity.
**A note on the lack of Sanskrit – I believe Sanskrit is a beautiful language which contains within it vibratory aspects which lend well to chanting and resonance. It is important not to divorce the heritage of yoga from the practice. But it is only human nature to feel intimidated by a vast amount of new information, and so this is worded to reach people where they are. Teachings are and will be offered in varying depths to allow for more people to come to yoga without falling into the competitive pitfall of foreign language memorization without retention of the spirit of the words.**
Heather Ralston 