Yogianity

I have been missing yoga for the past several weeks. Memphis had several studios that I visited occasionally, and the last three semesters of school I took classes through the school and really loved it, but I didn't keep it up after graduation. I've been looking this morning at studios in my area, and found a few I'd like to check out.

One studio I found advertises itself as "offering a wide variety of classes, including our Christian "Faith Yoga", which the site defines as 'practicing yoga with a Christ-centered focus, designed to deepen your walk with the Lord...Exercising the body and mind while meditating on God's Word has a lasting affect on your life'. I found myself feeling very taken aback by this syncretism of sorts.

For me, yoga is a very Eastern religion/culture thing. I love it for it's spirituality without blatant religion (that I'm familiar with, anyway). I can connect through yoga and meditation in a way that enhances my Western Christian Restorationist religious understanding of God and the value of a human soul, in ways that I never got in practicing my religion on its own. I am definitely an advocate for the maxim "if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." There is so much in the world that contributes to peace and love of God that is not strictly within the confines of a specific religion or way of thought. Yoga is one of those for me. But I'm not sure at first glance about this Christian Yoga stuff. My reaction to it is a fear that the intrinsic spirituality that is contained in yoga practice might be misplaced in the zealous effort of a studio to bring Christ into it so conspicuously. The beauty of yoga for me is the universality of the opportunity to connect with one's individual higher power, the lack of dogma, the openness it presents as being a form of exercise, or a spiritual stretch. I don't want someone to tell me what to think when i'm meditating - that's not the point of meditation!

Maybe this class is the answer to someone's desire for enhancing their own western christian spirituality, but I think I'd rather take my own path rather than be told how to integrate the two elements of Christianity and Yoga practice. However, I may check it out just to see how my knee-jerk reaction measures up against the actual experience.

Namaste, ya'll! ;)