I think most of you are aware of the Operation Beautiful project. Well today’s the day that the Operation Beautiful book gets published. Caitlin, health blogger, OB founder and now published author (yay!) has asked the blogosphere in general for their take on body image. So here’s mine. It’s based on a post I wrote earlier in the year on image and yoga (what else).
Incidentally, American Readers, Caitlin is on the Today Show at 10am EST on Thursday 5th August!
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The Image of Yoga
I do read Yoga Journal and it’s UK equivalent Yoga & Health (I even write for the latter one), I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cover shot that isn’t of very slim, Caucasian women bending their “perfect” bodies into gymnastic postures. Sometimes it’s enough to make anyone give up. What about the tattoed, crooked backed women who will never get their head on their foot in Pigeon Pose (and yes YJ I’m willing to pose for a cover shot if you’re reading)? What about all the beautifully curvacious yoginis out there? What about the graceful older yogini? What about the non-Caucasian? What, even, about the men?
We need images that inspire us to keep practicing despite, or even because of, our individual limitations – which, incidentally, we do all have. Images that remind us that this practice that we have right now is yoga, that we are not waiting to practice yoga until we can attain a posture akin to a Yoga Journal cover shot. Asana is only one of the eight limbs of yoga – a precursor if you will to the practices of pranayama and meditation and bliss itself.
With this in mind then, we can begin to realise that we do not have to be a certain build, or be of a certain flexibility to practice yoga. It doesn’t matter if we can’t perform every asana “perfectly”. Desikachar says that yoga is “to attain what was previously unattainable”. That “unattainable” is different for everybody.
Your yoga is beautiful right now, just as it is!
How’s your yoga, on or off the mat today?
I’m a Rubenesque Yogini and it’s my mission to help people come to a place of self-love and acceptance through yoga. It’s unfortunate that those images are out there, in front of us, all the time.
Even in Gary Kraftsow’s workshop at Boston Yoga Journal (you quoted Desikachar, of the viniyoga lineage, Gary’s school and my future school) I was learning from this teacher about adaptive yoga while seeing the banner behind his head of someone in perfect dancer’s pose… all ballerina’d up and model-perfect.
I’m so happy I followed my passion and went and got certified to teach yoga BEFORE I looked like a “yoga teacher should.”
I am so full of thoughts on this topic I could go on forever. Great post. I’m hoping to hear more!
this is so true! i’ve struggled with this “look like a yoga teacher” thing for awhile, but in a different way. when i went through my first t.t. in 2003 i really think i was encouraged to do a lot of asana that my body wasn’t ready for – as a modern dancer i had the “look” and flexibility, but (i now understand) not the strength or preparedness. and i completely agree that we need images that inspire us. i’ve been brought to tears while teaching seniors in wheelchairs and seen the joy of yoga through their beautiful asana (that looking nothing like what we see in the yoga media). thanks for sharing. i agree with anna – i could go on forever about this topic.
So true! I think ultimately yoga has finally allowed me to be happy about my body, and just love it the way it is. I’m not the tall lean bendy yogini type, far from it, but indeed my yoga is beautiful.
For the record, the “unattainable” when I started were my toes, how cliché
I love this. And I love the idea of accepting wherever you are in yoga. I am attending the month long kripalu teacher training program in october and cannot wait to delve into everything. I hope that the class is full of diverse people, because you are correct, all of the yoga journal models are thin, gorgeous, and can attain difficult poses. Sometimes I do find this inspiring, though, and keep practicing to someday have the strength and flexibility to hold these postures.
I wholeheartedly agree. I fell in love with yoga for how it makes me feel. However, it can be very intimidating when your instructors are mostly of the lithe and bendy variety and I know I will not grow any taller.
Yoga is wonderful and I thank you for your insightful post.
You are beautiful.
You ARE beautiful and this post is BEAUTIFUL, Rachel! I agree. My body has limitations, with protruding disks in my lower spine, but my yoga keeps me going. I’d be sore all of the time without it. Media does what it does – sad in so many ways. I always preface a beginner class with “its more about awareness than how you physically look. We all look different. There’s no competition. Just check in with the breath. Go within and let YOUR body’s answers emerge.”
I am curvy and have an athletic build, with less flexibility than some of my students. I have upper arms that will never be “thin”, and I’ve practiced for years! Teaching at a college, I am also at least 15 to 20 years older than many of my students. I hope it gives them hope that yoga is accessible at any age!
Hi Rachel! It’s been far too long since I stopped by and enjoyed your pages!
I love this post. I’ve been thinking about this a lot- I love seeing people of all shapes and sizes practising their own yoga. Yoga reminds me to accept myself and my limitations but not as limitations, rather as part of my yoga journey… if that makes sense. I guess essentially I think everyone should practice yoga in order to gain greater peace. Plus, I think we should celebrate who we are because we’re all the imperfectly perfect creations of a divine architect
xxx
Oh, and going back to my thoughts on the perfect yogini- I attended a workshop recently by a well-known yoga teacher. His methods were anything but acceptance of limitations and I came away feeling beaten down for not being “advanced” enough rather than feeling peaceful and rejuvenated. And, to be honest, it’s taken me a while to get over this hurdle in my yoga journey; all because this supposedly amazing teacher made me feel small and inadequate. He didn’t give any modifications for poses that you may find difficult, and repeated said that the cause of inability in the asanas was fear and the mind rather than physical limitations. Since then I’ve taken to practising on my own rather, than at a class, in order for my yoga practice to be encouraging rather than disheartening. Ok, rant over! Sorry! x