I want to have a conversation about yoga as fitness. Coming from someone who came to yoga through Bikram-style classes, I get it. For some people, yoga is about pushing your body physically. It took me four years of hot yoga, the closing of my studio of practice, and the loss of my teacher before I got curious about what else yoga had to offer. I’ve since learned that yoga can be a practice and it can also be a lifestyle – but each of us takes our own journey and our paths are of different lengths. We should honor that.
I recently read the New York Times article on Tara Stiles, a model/yogini who champions the physical practice and whose book Slim, Calm, Sexy markets yoga as a tool for weight loss among other things. As I read some very disparaging quotes rejecting her style (and her as a person), I found myself rooting for her. She’s 29 and she’s teaching $10 classes to people who don’t want to ‘Om.’ She describes the NYC yoga scene as often feeling like a party that she was never invited to -- so she started her own party. The idea of breaking down walls is huge for yoga in this decade, it’s too bad that this spirit receives so much bullying.
I know now that yoga can become so much more than a physical practice -- it can fulfill us spiritually and emotionally. It can change the way that we live our life and the way we treat other people. But, each of us has to discover these benefits on our own time. I’m with Tara, “There are no rules....”
Hannah Leatherbury is a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance (RYT-200) and a blogger within the Yoga Journal Community. She received her training in Classical Hatha yoga in 2009 and has been teaching ever since. Her interest in movement and wellness evolved from a childhood filled with dance training in tap, jazz, ballet and modern coupled with a post-college urge to stay active and healthy. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Goucher College. You can contact her via her blog http://community.yogajournal.
Hannah Leatherbury is a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance (RYT-200) and a blogger within the Yoga Journal Community. She received her training in Classical Hatha yoga in 2009 and has been teaching ever since. Her interest in movement and wellness evolved from a childhood filled with dance training in tap, jazz, ballet and modern coupled with a post-college urge to stay active and healthy. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Goucher College. You can contact her via her blog http://community.yogajournal.
