Why People Either Love Yoga or Hate It
Picture this: You show up to a new yoga studio in town. The building is modern, the front lobby is brightly lit and poppy, there is a swag wall with tanks and tees. The class starts quickly, it’s fast paced and sweaty, the music is loud, there’s a lot of core work to “feel the burn.” At the end, you all sit very still and sing “om” together, maybe.
Then there’s the other side of the spectrum.
Picture this: You show up to a new yoga studio in town. The building is older, with colorful flags hanging across the entrance, the quiet lobby smells sweetly of incense, the wooden floors warm and a bit squeaky. This class is slower, there’s a lot of talking about the mind and consciousness and a lot of words that sound like a foreign language. The poses are familiar, but they have new names to you. There’s meditation and some chanting — it’s oddly soothing yet a little distant.
The first scenario is what a lot of yoga in the Western world looks and feels like these days. It’s built around the desire to “get a good workout” and it fails to connect the dots for people. On the other hand, the latter scenario is like jumping into the deep end without knowing how to swim.
Whichever scenario feels most comfortable and alluring depends on the person. All of the factors either become intriguing enough to keep them coming back, or the deterrent from yoga in any form at all. Someone’s perception is often shaped by the first polarizing impression.
Honestly — either of these experiences are okay. There’s nothing inherently wrong about them. But it proves that “yoga” these days is not created equally or consistently, and that’s where a lot of new yogis hit roadblocks. The gap is too wide, with an understandably disjointed path in between.
Can you relate?
Whether you’ve ever stepped barefoot into a yoga studio or not, you likely have a perception of it in mind. Undeniably, it has grown large enough to break its way into our cultural lexicon. It may not be fully understood, but it certainly has a presence.
After years in and out of various studios across the nation, not to mention seeing yoga explode online, it has become crystal clear to me why certain people keep coming back for more, while others may never unroll their expensive Lululemon mat again. From a high-level, the spectrum of yoga offerings is too wide — it’s either too bougie for some or too “woo-woo” spiritual for others.
“Too Bougie”
Since the time when yoga came to the U.S. in the late 1800s — to when Indra Devi opened the first modern yoga studio in Hollywood, California in the 1950s — all the way to now, yoga has been popularized, fantasized, mixed with the likes of Pilates and more. In many ways, it would be almost unrecognizable to the yogis of old.
Whether you realize it or not, the “art form” of yoga has undeniably been distilled, distorted and put into a pretty, branded package (probably from Lululemon).
In the most modern, Americanized version of yoga, classes are fitness-based experiences. They’re a good butt workout. They’re freaking fast a lot of the time. They make for cool Instagram photos. And for these reasons, it does keep people coming back for more.
Truthfully, most aren’t left wanting more by way of spiritual enlightenment. But some are.
At the end of the day, I can’t totally hate on this side of the yoga spectrum. Admittedly, this kind of thing is a good workout. But it’s not the whole package.
“Too Woo-Woo”
The Westernized version we see so much of today is only a piece of a larger puzzle.
The practices of yoga date back thousands of years, passed down teacher to student and revered as a sacred practice. Historically, the practice of yoga was based in spirituality, enlightenment, and ways to get there. The earliest yogis would sit in meditation as the foundation of their practice—making “sukhasana” (or “easy seat” aka criss cross applesauce) one of the first “yoga poses” for thousands of years — while the physical “flow” many are familiar with today only originated in the 1800s in India.
These days, the most authentic yoga you will find in the Western world retains as many of the early tenants of the practice as possible. This doesn’t mean there’s no movement involved (the physical practice is more often present than not) but there is far more recognition of the mind-body-spirit connection.
For many, and often those who have been turned off from conventional religious backgrounds and seek serenity in other forms, yoga presents itself as an arena to dive deeper within our modern lives.
This being said, the ancient, spiritual practices come with a lot of baggage. There is a lot to unpack, an entire language (Sanskrit) associated with it, breathing practices, gods and goddesses, chanting, mantras, and more. For many, this is more than they signed up for. Once exposed to too much woo-woo yoga stuff, this is when they roll up their mats and walk away from the practice.
But for those who connect to it — this is where a lifelong practice begins, while it’s hard to believe the fad versions of yoga are here to stay.
Where is the balance?
While the spectrum is wide and there’s often a disconnect from one end to the other, it’s not impossible to strike a balance.
I’ve experienced a number of teachers and studios that recognize the modernization of yoga, while still honoring its history and meaning. I recommend that beginners try at least three studios (and three different teachers) to get a feel for the broad offerings in the yoga space.It then becomes yogi’s choice — take what you like and leave the rest. This perspective leaves more room for exploration, growth and fun discovering this practice.
All this to say, there’s beauty in the wide spectrum of yoga. In whatever form or fashion it may take, the adaptations of the practice makes yoga more accessible to everyone. Isn’t that the end goal?
