Weekly Yoga Journal

     Traditionally, yoga was really only practiced by aspiring yogi's, and they were considered outcasts. The transition of yoga, from east to the west, is when yoga really took off into the mainstream empire that it is today. I truly think that Americans are easily persuadable, especially to the idea of yoga and all of its claims regarding its life changing qualities.      In my opinion, If yoga is said to "heal" most of your problems, then it should be considered a necessity to healthcare, and should be free. Hospitals should adopt their own style of yoga, that is backed by science, and offer it to patients who suffer from all of the disorders yoga claims to heal: low back pain, depression from pain, anxiety, stress, high blood pressure. Instead, yoga in America become a commodity. People started to figure out ways to brand yoga and turn it into an empire.      I mean, the perfect example of this was Bikram. He changed the way people viewed yoga, as a way to "kill

      This week, for my yoga practice, I watched a youtube video on Ashtanga yoga. I really focused on this weeks journal theme while taking the class, which was; Yoga as a healing (medicine). From the start of the class, I can tell the teacher used a calm tone to try and create a sense of relaxation. Relaxation, alone, is a great way to relieve stress from the body, so it makes sense if people treat yoga as a medicine. This teacher also mentions the importance of linking breathe to movement and that practice will keep your mind and body healthy.      She also starts out with an invocation to show gratitude to the practice and gratitude to the teacher. This invocation creates a sense of spirituality, in a way, and is basically a form of 'praying' to the people who created this practice, which creates a feeling that these teachers are above you and are here to show you the path to enlightenment, through their practice. To me, this is manipulation at its finest. The manipulation

 i s yoga framed as more than exercise? In what ways is it suggested at your practice space that yoga can "empower" you? Why not run, or do zumba?       This week I had the very special opportunity to do Bikram Yoga and it was very challenging to say the least. I had a hard time keeping up with the teacher and trying to copy the poses. Once I got into the rhythm of the flow, I was loving it. The poses in Bikram yoga are a great stretch for your entire body and my body was feeling it at the end. I also was sweating immensely. The challenging nature of the poses gave me a tremendous workout too.      Personally, I treat yoga as a workout and a meditation practice, however, it is traditionally framed more as a lifestyle. Yoga is seen as a way to empower you to become a better person by doing hard practices and preforming austerities. In today's society, in the west, at least, yoga is framed as just an exercise. I can see how yoga can empower people though. After a hard pra