The New Religion?

Christie Blatchford has a column about yoga * in today's Globe. While for the most part I disagree -- if she thinks no one ever sweats in yoga she's obviously never been to my Ashtanga 2 or Yoga/Pilates Fusion classes -- it is an amusing piece, and I think there's something to be said about the yoga mat "ready to be tied with [the] matching cord, which should rightly match the stripe of the waistband trim on one's Lululemon pants."

I hadn't heard of Lululemon until I moved to the west coast a year and a half ago. I'm not sure if the rise in the trendiness of yoga coincided with my move or if yoga is just more trendy out here. But, when I first started attending a studio in Victoria, I began noticing the same symbol on everyone's lower backs (not even just in yoga class) and felt like I was missing out on some vital aspect of west coast yogic culture. One day I happened by the source, that brightly colored Lululemon store, and for the moment rolled my eyes and decided to resist the commercialization of yoga.

Eventually I caved, however, and shelled out for a pair of Lululemon yoga pants. In spite of my reservations, I had to admit that they were the comfiest pair of pants I'd ever owned, not to mention that in yoga classes they saved me the embarrassment of constantly tugging at the waistband of my no-name sweat pants that kept sliding down my hips.

I started doing yoga over six years ago now, before the eruption of these hip, stylized studios, when the only option was to take an Iyengar course at the local Y. Since then, it's been interested to see the rise in the popularity and the increasingly Western stylization of yoga. Apparently more people practice yoga in the West than in India these days. I don't necessarily see the westernization of yoga as a negative thing -- I certainly don't know much about the way yoga is traditionally practiced in India -- but I do wonder about what's been lost in translation. Why has yoga become so trendy, and what about it appeals to people so much these days?

I'm trying to avoid saying something cheesy about yoga being the new religion of the capitalist masses. Instead, I'm off to an Astanga class to meditate on these thoughts.

* Unfortunately you need to either sign up for a free trial or buy an online subscription to read many of the Globe & Mail articles these days. They do have a decent rate for students, at least.