To think that many yoga teachers are too “woo woo?”

[SnugShaker]

I’ve done yoga for a while and noticed that a lot of teachers seem to embrace a very spiritual, “new age” approach, with talk of energy, chakras, and healing. While I understand yoga has a deeper, more mindful side, sometimes it feels like it goes a bit overboard. Is it just me or do others feel that yoga teachers often focus too much on this “woo woo” stuff?

Yes! Yoga was suggested to me because I need to improve my flexibility, I’m not keen on Pilates because every time I’ve tried it I’ve put my back out, but I’ve only enjoyed yoga when I’ve had a teacher who was more like a ‘fitness instructor’ type than a tie-dyed t-shirt wearing hippy type. I hate the lying down with my eyes closed at the end, I just want to stretch!

Church services aren’t held in the local council sports centre. Nor are they listed as exercise classes.

OP, I get you. Some yoga classes are disappearing into their own chakras. Others are less spiritually oriented so it’s important to keep trying to find one that fits for you.

@LaughingM - no, it’s not offensive to call woo things woo. It’s a rather disrespectful description but it’s also a valid perspective. Belief systems can have a lot of woo, and it’s not for everyone.

I agree and did feel it a little cheeky when one of my teachers add in a "finishing prayer" to what was clearly sold as a exercise class.

When I go to a yoga class, I expect a movement practice with some mindfulness, not a full-on spiritual sermon.

But if you have just physical movements with a ‘bit of’ mindfulness, then you’re not doing yoga as it was intended. Just a really sanitised, westernised version of it.

If that’s what you want, you need to find a yoga teacher who does that.
It’s not the yoga teachers who are at fault for not offering the westernised version, the one YOU want.

This is why I much prefer Pilates. I expect yoga to contain a fair dose of spiritual stuff, that’s part of yoga.

Occasionally I have done a much more practical yoga class with focus on movement and breath and not much woo - but they’re the exception.

I went to a yoga class in my 30s which ended with a 'meditation' session. This consisted of the teacher droning on about drifting into the deep purple......... I hated that bit.

I have since learned that it was a far cry from true meditation, which I have learned and enjoy.

Have you not done stretching for the whole length of the class already? 😵‍💫😵‍💫

Agree with PP, I prefer pilates because it's less "woo woo"

Only encountered on tutor that was, but she was kind of competing with herself whether to be woo woo or talk about herself.
I did give her class a second try, but gave up after that.

I've found the opposite. Too many yoga teachers seem to treat it just like a stretch and strength class with none of the underpinning spirituality.

The best teachers I had started and ended with a chant and would chat about some of the teachings and stories during the class. I loved it!

I'm not someone who would usually use the expression 'cultural appropriation' but I can't think of a better example of it than someone complaining about a yoga class having a spiritual dimension.

Yes I don’t like the spiritual aspect of Yoga and I feel uncomfortable with it

Yeah, but if we’ve finished stretching I’d rather get on and do something else, not spend 15 minutes lying on an uncomfortable mat wondering if everyone else really has their eyes closed or if they’re all lying there waiting for it to end so they can leave too.

This! Yoga is a spiritual practice.

I used to be on edge because THREE times I fell asleep and snored at the meditation bit 😳 So I was scared to relax after that

But yoga is an intrinsically spiritual activity surely? That's why I don't do it. I don't want my exercise to have that side to it and there are lots of alternative ways to keep fit.
I think the problem is that there are lots of exercise classes that have taken elements of yoga and Westernised them so that many people now view it as nothing more than a stretch class and are then surprised to find out about the background. Yoga isn't becoming woo, it always was, it's just that it has been misrepresented to quite a large degree in Western society.
I was surprised to recently see pictures on a local Church school's social media of the children doing a yoga class. I mentioned to someone I know who works there that I would have thought this was contrary to the school's professed Christian ethos and she had no idea that yoga had its roots in religion. It turns out they'd invited in a number of different teachers in to vary the PE classes so one week it was Zumba, another ballet and so on. They'd not thought yoga was any different.
Probably people who run yoga type classes but without the spiritual element should have to call them something like "yoga based exercise" to avoid confusion but in the absence of that kind of differentiation I would always assume that a yoga class would have a spiritual element and that's not for me, so I wouldn't go.

Aren't Pilates and yoga different though - one is strengthening (and recommended for anyone with hypermobility) and yoga is stretching (and not recommended if hypermobile)? I realise you can get stronger through stretching but the way the body moves is different.

Sweary Yoga sounds like a great idea.

Not if its been sold as an exercise class rather than a faith pratice

I wouldn't describe it as a faith practice. Its not an exercise class either.

There are different types of yoga, but the teachers of the best class I went to would describe yoga as being about strength.

What's intrinsically wrong with having a sanitised Westernised version, though? That can be calm and meditative without being unpalatably woo for some?

I wouldn't expect spiritual people to attend, but I don't see how it's offensive to adapt it for a different audience.

I quite like the phrase, "if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly" - e.g. if people are more comfortable/in tune with doing the spirituality low key, then it's better than not being spiritual at all.

Exactly

isn't it rooted in Hinduism.

I want to do the exercises not pray or open my mind to an unknown power.

I practise qi gong and tai chi, and the amount of spirituality in those varies, like yoga, according to the teacher. (My daughter is a yoga teacher and has the balance about right, I think.)

Any yoga I’ve been to has had a finishing prayer - even the non “woo woo” ones. Even Les Mils body balance has a lie down and a prayer at the end!

It would be naive to expect anything else imo.

Only ever had that type once and that was in a studio which had loads of iconography

Yoga literally means the yoking of the mind and the body. Without the spiritual ideas it’s just stretching.