Whether or not yoga lovers admit it, there’s a pretty serious social stigma associated with their… er… activity. Now that I’m a reformed eye roller (I took a couple classes and, to my chagrin, enjoyed it thoroughly) I thought I’d share some thoughts.

I think the yoga stigma comes from two things. First, the Armageddon-like seriousness with which participants treat it, and second, the perfectly understandable bewilderment one feels when observing. Having lived on both sides of the yoga divide, I think everyone can come together and admit that yoga, to an untrained eye, looks fantastically nuts. Stretching, humming and moving slowly, sometimes while eyes are closed, disagrees with nearly all modern conceptions of physical exercise. So, all this considered, the mammoth disconnect between citizen and yoga citizen is not at all surprising.

Adding insult to injury are the pose names. I couldn’t help but to laugh, nay, breakdown hysterically, when I first heard King Dancer. The Tree pose, the Wind Removing pose…. the Downward Dog…. Truth be told, that one put me over the edge. When I heard Downward Dog uttered with supreme causality and confidence, tears started streaming down my cheeks.

I propose a truce between eye rollers and yogaites. Clearly, both sides will need to make concessions. For the part of the eye rollers, they’ll need to at least superficially entertain the idea that yoga isn’t a complete joke…that it has physical and mental benefits….that it is exercise when judged by a standard other than the conventional. For the part of the yogaites, don’t be so defensive….abstract exercise is a difficult concept. And please, consider changing the names.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Stephen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.