Teacher’s Tales:
“Get a long and lean body with yoga.”
This was the caption of an advert that popped up in the sidebar of
my laptop screen one day. I’ve noticed more of this over the past few
years - diet culture increasingly showing up in the yoga world.
But what if a long and lean body is not something I aspire to?
Never mind that it would be a genetic impossibility for my 5 foot 1
and a half (the half matters!) frame.
Type ‘yoga’ into a search engine and the results are telling but not
surprising. Overwhelmingly, one type of person and body dominates
because this aesthetic is presented as the ideal. It is the picture of
health we are all meant to strive for, isn’t it?
The trouble is, you can’t judge a book by its cover. When I started
teaching I was a size 12, the smallest I have ever been in my adult
life. Nearly eight years later I am a size 16-18. Am I presenting a
positive, aspirational image of a yoga practitioner? Or have I let
myself go?
Weight loss was not the initial goal of my yoga practice all those
years ago. I was thrilled when my back pain disappeared but the
weight loss that followed was a huge bonus. Or so I thought. I
Diet culture and disordered eating in Yogaland. By Paula Hines
became fixated not only on physical practice but also with eating the
way I thought a ‘real’ yoga practitioner was supposed to. Everyone
told me how great I looked. (Did I look so bad before, or now, I
wonder?) However, within my experience of becoming smaller and
quite obsessive, confusing restriction with tapas (fiery discipline), I
found myself becoming unwell – my periods stopped and a lot of my
hair fell out (something I hid successfully, apparently), all the while
being praised for my appearance and simultaneously being told by
my GP that I was still ‘overweight’ because of my BMI. If you already
have a history of issues with food or disordered eating, orthorexia
can easily be masked under the guise of ‘wellness’.
You can’t judge a book by its cover.
Having a different body is not wrong despite the messages from
our wider culture claiming otherwise. Regardless of how one might
judge my appearance now, I am in a much better place physically
and mentally. All aspects of my yoga practice have helped me get
here. For that I am very grateful.Paula Hines is a London-based yoga teacher and writer
(ucanyoga.co.uk)It’s okay to be different
Te acher zone