When you check the word “yoga” in Google, the image about the subject that you will see on the internet are all too similar. What you may likely see are tall, bendy, Caucasian people, especially women who are folded into pretzel-like poses. However, with the exception of the usual Indian Guru, this trend has been the aspirational body image that is brought forth by the yoga industry of today.
Nevertheless, things are changing.
If you sit down a little bit and observe what has actually been happening with respect to the popularization of yoga over the last two years, you will see that the way yoga is represented in the media is evolving at a very surprising rate as reality of the demographics of practitioners.
Let us be realistic. It was not ideal to move around town with a yoga mat slung over your shoulder in the past. Recently, this has changed. Although yoga has been existing in the western world for several years now, the massive popularization of the practice is just growing through its infancy. For the majority of the prevalence of yoga in the western world, it has been a practice for the privileged. Today, yoga is practiced by all. In fact, it is being offered to people of all socioeconomic categories, bringing diversity to the practice and fostering opportunity for people of different sizes, colors, and shapes to become leasers in the eyes of the public.
It is a well known fact that many of the practitioners highlighted in yoga publications are still those tall, thin looking Caucasian women, but there are have been a major shift currently. When you look at any yoga magazine, what you will see are men, people of different colors, women of all sizes and shapes, making their way into mainstream media. However, new styles of yoga practice are forming to coincide with different body types, spiritual practices, as well as preferences. This is what is helping to cultivate new leaders with the community.
Call to action
It about time for the yoga community to spread the message of yoga to the entire world. It is time to step out of the yoga closet. We must learn to use social media and marketing effectively, to spread the news about yoga to the rest of the world. This is the only way we can shape the face of yoga to the rest of the world and tell them about the benefit of the practice.
