Another White Lady Doing Yoga?
Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?
Well, of course, I hope I’m the former. If you have advice, wisdom, thoughts, or critiques, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Sharing your lived experiences with me is a gift, and I welcome them with open arms. I strive to engage with this expansive cultural history and philosophy with the respect it deserves—something that first intrigued me at 17 but took another 20 years to truly dive into. Living one’s truth and passion isn’t always easy (at least for me), but here I am.
So, back to culture—my immense appreciation for it—and how I hope to be a responsible sharer of everything I’ve come to love about about yoga.
Cultural appreciation means engaging with yoga respectfully, with awareness of its origins, philosophy, and traditions.
Cultural appropriation happens when elements of yoga are taken out of context, commercialized, or used without regard for their deeper meaning or history.
(Thanks for the definitions, ChatGPT.)
There are very few things in life that I don’t need to know the why behind. Yes, I’m a millennial—I can’t function unless I understand the history, the reason, the truth, the desired results, all the angles, etc., etc., etc. And as the chatter in my mind gets louder, I remember why I do yoga, but also why I needed to understand its origins.
When I first saw a yoga class offering at my local gym as a teenager in the early 2000s, I thought, how cool, yoga is all the rage right now. I took the class, and besides the teacher (a girl from my school’s mom) gently suggesting I skip the gum next time, I left feeling great. Not only did I feel cool, but I felt looser in my body, and something in me needed more of that.
Between that first class and now, my understanding and appreciation for this ancient philosophy has only deepened. In 2020, I finally fulfilled my teenage dream of becoming a yoga teacher. That’s when the history really came in—I couldn’t just do yoga, I had to understand it. I was fortunate to study at a yoga school that deeply values history and foundations. My yoga lineage traces back to Krishnamacharya and B.K.S. Iyengar, following the tradition of direct teacher-to-student transmission that preserves the integrity of the practice and connects my journey in 2025 to yoga’s deep roots, philosophy, and traditions.
To put it simply, the foundation of my yoga philosophy—and the sources I turn to for both teaching and my own practice—comes from:
Bhagavad Gita
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (for philosophy and lifestyle application)
Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar (primary source for asanas, aka poses)
Yoga, for me now, is a spiritual discipline (a topic with many perspectives, but one for another day). I’ve been through all the phases a typical young woman from a Northern California suburb might go through:
Practicing just to show off a new outfit.
Pushing poses to uncomfortable limits in hopes of getting tighter abs.
Looking around the room to see who else could hold Crow Pose, just to feel like I was better than others.
Meeting a woman who wrote an entire yoga book but intentionally left out all history and philosophy because she was a Christian.
Practicing at a studio that prohibited teachers from using Sanskrit pose names to avoid being seen as appropriating the practice.
Yoga is a 5,000+ year-old spiritual practice from India, not a trendy workout in a cute outfit that you use to get a tighter butt. Yoga, for me, is much more than just physical practice—it’s a profound journey of self-awareness and connection to a deeper tradition. Its true essence lies in its ancient roots and spiritual purpose and it’s a discipline that transcends the body and mind, helping us grow, heal, and find clarity beyond appearances. As I continue to learn and share this practice, I remain committed to honoring its rich history, understanding its teachings, and offering it in a way that respects its origins.
“Yoga is the method by which the restless mind is calmed and the energy directed into constructive channels” - BKS Iyengar
