Final Write Up

    When I chose Yoga: East meets West as one of my classes, I did not know how misinformed I was in regards to yoga. If I am being completely honest, I chose the class in the beginning for physical purposes. I expected to have yoga practices every time the class met along with the extra practice that was required of us. My main goal, in the beginning, coming out of this class was to be more flexible than when I first started. However, after all of the information I have learned in class, I realized that yoga is more than what Western practices make it out to be.  

    After our class lessons, yoga in the East compared to the West is quite different in the purpose aspect. Many Westerns sell yoga as a physical practice without having known the origins and as a commodity. In the East, yoga's purpose is to lead one closer to enlightenment and further away from their daily sufferings. I am not saying that yoga in the East cannot be sold as a commodity, but this action is usually seen in the West. As mentioned previously, when yoga is done without the knowledge of its origins or is inappropriately misused, it is considered to be culturally appropriated. That is what I did in the beginning. By viewing yoga as a purely physical practice, I appropriated yoga and its Eastern purposes. 

    After having the knowledge that there is more to yoga than physicality, I began to work on my spirituality during my yoga practices. During the savasana at the end of each practice, I used that time to work on my inner peace. I did this by focusing on my breathing and the parts of my body that held stress. I was able to release all of my built-up stress in a day by releasing the tension in my body. While I do not think I can ever go to the extent that many gurus go to reach enlightenment, such as performing an austerity like raising my arm up for twelve years, I have gained a better sense of self-awareness. This change did not occur right away. It was something that happened over the course of practicing. It is a feeling that is difficult to describe. Overall, I just feel better and less stressed. When people say that their mental health has improved through yoga, I completely understood after experiencing it as well. Although my mental health has gotten better, it is still a constant process and I have to continue to strive for it because many things can break it. 

    Since the pandemic has affected many aspects of yoga, there were many things I could not experience. Things such as having a community, going to a yoga studio and having it as my ritual space, and forming that guru-student relationship. Most of my practices consisted of youtube videos performed in my living room. I was also practicing on my own for a majority of the time. In many of the videos we have watched, people have explained that they felt a tribal and family type of feeling through the classes they took. While I was able to practice with my classmates for some classes, the feeling of a tribe could not be emitted through zoom for me personally. I also tried to imitate a ritual space as much as possible in my house, however, it was difficult when the area was rearranged of furniture or contained constant noise. I also could not form a relationship with the teachers because the videos were often pre-recorded. 

    In conclusion, there were many things I learned about yoga and its origins. I have really enjoyed practicing every week. Without this class, I feel as though I would not have practiced as much as I have. Not only did I notice a change in my flexibility, but I also noticed a change in my mentality. I plan on including yoga into my daily practices once this class is over.