Practicing the 8 Limbs of Yoga Will Help You Understand Yoga as It Was Meant to Be

The original eight limbs of yoga offer insight into how yoga has been culturally appropriated. Here’s how you can honor yoga’s roots whilepracticeDecolonizing yoga is a trendy topic right now, but what does that even meaThe decolonizing yoga movement is twofold. First, we uplift Blyoga teachers in order to promote more diverse representation. Second, we teach the full eight limbs of yoga (not just a physical practice) in order to honor yoga’s ancient roots.

Getty ImagThe history of yoYoga is an indigenous practice that has origins in Egypt and the Indus Valley — two ancient civilizations that date back over 5,000 years. As a desi (an Indian woman living in the diaspora) yoga teacher and activist, I educate folks on how yoga practices from India have been appropriated, and what I wish to see for a decolonized future of yogOne of the most harmful myths that creates erasure of the essence yoga is that it’s simply a workout. Yoga is a holistic philosophy that gifts us a set of tenets, which teach us how we can navigate life in a spiritually aligned way.

The Yoga Sutras outline these principals in an eight-limb systemWhat are the Yoga SutrThe Yoga Sutras are a set of sutras (scriptures) that outline yogic theory. They were written around 500 B.C., during India’s medieval age, by a sage named Patanjali (1The sutras define the eight limbs of yoga, which teach us different facets of how to embody yoga (unity) in mind, body, and spirit. They are now thought of as an important foundational aspect of the Indian yogic traditionWas this helpfuYoga has always been a philosophy by which to conduct life. Its aim is to be practiced with discipline so that a person is ultimately led to enlightenment: a state of being in which you transcend the endless cycle of karma.

Karma is another concept that has been misconstrued due to misappropriation of Sanskrit (the language in which yogic theory was originally written)Karma refers to a cycle in which one is reborn over and over on Earth until they can break the cycle and return to the divine source from which we are abirtheEssentially, yoga is a practice that reminds us of the greater cosmic dance we are all part of — a very different description than “yoga for a flat tummy.So when and how did this transition from cosmic philosophy to “girly” workout occuYoga in the Western worA few gurus, namely Tirumalai Krishnamacharya and Paramahansa Yogananda, brought the knowledge of yoga from India to the United States (2). It remained a fringe practice for Westerners until facets of yogic philosophy and Hindu symbology were adopted into the mainstream American consciousness during the hippie movement in the 1960s.

Ever heard of a little band called The Beatles (3)? It wasn’t too long after the band traveled to India that yoga found itself deep in the capitalindustrial-complex, where American corporations saw how much money could be made off of yoga being branded as “chicThis is when yoga was repackaged as a luxury workout rather than a spiritual belief systemWhy we must decolonize yoToday when we think of yoga, images of thin, non-disabled white women in tight brand-name yoga pants are what come to mind. Yoga as a workout is problematic because it’s harmful for those of us who live outside India to see our heritage being sold, watered down, and used for only aesthetics.

However, it’s arguably even worse that yoga is being used as a tool within a colonial agendYoga studios owned by, and created for, rich white folks often move into neighborhoods that are being gentrified as a symbol that they’re “up and coming.” This often displaces the Black and Brown residents who have lived in those spaces for many generationsLastly, yoga studios tend to enforce many harmful ideas, such as diet culture, ableism, queer erasure, classism, and cultural appropriatioo how do we combat all this? We must start by vowing to learn the history of yoga and adopt a practice that aids in liberation for all people. A good start is to learn the eight limbs of the Yoga Sutras and apply them to our lives in real time.