5 Yoga Myth-Busters

As a new student of yoga it’s easy to be suspicious of the practice. What’s this class going to be like? Is the teacher going to brainwash me? Will I suddenly go vegan!

I know this story all too well because I’ve been there, and as I’ve said before…I did not like my first yoga class. Nor did I like the second or third. I thought everyone was judging my wobbly movements and I didn’t understand half of what the teacher said because the names of the postures sounded so strange. It felt like I had to be a mindreader in order to flow with the rest of the class.

Besides, I also had preconceptions and judgements of my own about the seasoned yogis around me.

Listen, for every practicing yogi out there, there had to be a starting point. So here are a couple of things that were on my mind before I dipped my toe into the yoga lagoon, and what I learned after years of practice:

Myth #1: The yogis are judging me!

So let’s talk for a moment about the point behind yoga in the first place. The point of stepping onto the mat or sitting in meditation or simply breathing with conscious focused attention. The point can be found in Patanjali’s yoga sutras, which state that “yoga is the stopping of the whirlings of the mind.” We each think over 60,000 thoughts in a day. That’s a lot of thinking, and many of those thoughts can be of self-judgement, paranoia, or even the judgment of others.

On a personal level it took me years to get this thought out of my head: the yogis are judging me! That’s because I genuinely thought people were glaring at my wobbles and hobbles. I don’t remember what made me stop caring about the thoughts of others, but that’s also part of the practice. The practice of patience and the gift of time.

It’s important to note that we’re all human and that people will be people. So I’m not going to sugarcoat your yoga experience, because there may be a person in there who is in fact judging others. Just know…that person isn’t practicing yoga.

Myth #2: Yoga is a religion

Nope.

Yogis come from a full range of backgrounds and can be of any faith or have an atheistic point of view. Yoga is a spiritual practice—not a religion. The difference being that there is no prayer to a god or higher power. It’s a practice that focuses on the breath in order to explore one’s true nature of pure conscious awareness. As theologian and physics professor Ravi Ravindra states,“Yoga is the science of transformation."

Myth #3: Yoga requires super-human flexibility

Yoga requires one and only one thing: the breath. Without the breath there is no movement. Or to be more precise, without the breath there is no safety in the movement. Connecting with the breath creates focus and reminds one to stop when they’ve moved to their limit within a pose. You may hear teachers say “breathe through the pose.” They’re simply reminding the students to refrain from pushing, as pushing will inevitably cause injury.

It can be overwhelming to see a yogi fold like a pretzel or fly upside down, but it’s also important to note that the ease within those postures did not happen over night. They happened because of time, patience, and the connection to the breath.

Myth #4: Yoga is boring

This may blow your mind: I’ve been to boring yoga classes. 

I’ve also been to yoga classes that were so hard-core that I had a difficult time standing the next day. There are many ways to practice yoga, and the essence of the practice is to calm the busy thoughts in the mind. I say this because in the classes that bored me to tears, I was so focused on the fact that I was bored that I completely disconnected from my breath. My mind raced like a broken record repeating “I’m bored! I’m bored! I’m bored!”

So those classes weren’t for me, because I was going out of my mind, so to speak. Likewise, those power-yoga classes that I thought were fun were also not for me because they led to personal injury.

Balance is key, and in today’s day and age there are so many different yoga offerings. It’s about finding the one that speaks to you.

Myth #5: Yoga is for the ladies

Before yoga came to the west it was uncommon to find a female yoga practitioner. Although there were a few sprinkled here and there, the average practitioner was usually male. When yoga started its slow progression westward, there were several women that made a huge impact such as Indra Devi, a prominent student of Krishnamacharya and who was also known as the Mother of Western Yoga. Devi made yoga popular among the Hollywood elite and opened a successful yoga school in 1947, establishing yoga’s foothold in the west.

Another prominent figure was Lilias Folan who brought yoga to the average American household via her show on PBS. Stay-at-home workouts that targeted the American housewife became extremely popular throughout the 80s and 90s, and public broadcasting and VHS yoga were no exception to this fitness phenomenon. This may account for the reasoning as to why modern yoga studios boast a majority of female practitioners.

The moral of the story is that yoga is not for the men. It’s not for the ladies. It’s for the total human.