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Trauma-Informed Yoga
And why it’s a necessary thing
Ever since the United States “discovered” yoga, aspiring practitioners of this ancient form of meditation have been led down a path that has nothing to do with the yoga sutras. Yoga classes in the US often consist of a series of twisty-bendy, look-what-I-can-do asanas (poses) performed in sync to New Age music, by a group of people sporting over-priced yoga wear. Not necessarily helpful to the overweight person with limited flexibility, or the person who wasn’t expecting an aerobic workout.
The word yoga is from the ancient Sanskrit, and it means “to yoke” or unite. This refers to the practice of uniting the body with the breath. There are many types of yoga practices (hatha, ashtanga, vinyasa, Iyengar, viniyoga, yin, kundalini, and more). Most people I meet in the US are only familiar with vinyasa, and are unaware that other practices even exist.
I am not trying to place blame on the yoga instructors, who paid, on average, $3,000 for their teaching certification, and are led to believe the instruction in their teacher-training classes actually qualifies them to teach this ancient practice. I know many good, caring, honest people who teach yoga classes. The real problem lies with the certification system.
