A Quick Word on Yoga and Social Media

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My personal asana practice ebbs and flows, between diligent and inconsistent, challenging and gentle, spiritual and physical. Some days I am limber and my body flows into difficult poses, but many other days I struggle just to touch my toes.

I used to put myself down for it, because I thought I was failing myself and the "yoga lifestyle" by not getting on my mat everyday. However, our current society often forgets yoga is not just confined to our physical practice, especially with yoga's representation on social media. Its harder to photograph ourselves being compassionate, harder to get "likes" of us being mindful and open-minded in our everyday moments, so we typically default to visually engaging asana variations (like the image above) instead.

These can be fun, inspiring, beautiful, and conversation-starting… but let us also remember the yoga outside of the poses we scroll past everyday. You don't have to do a handstand to practice deep breathing, you don't have to be able-bodied to quietly meditate, you don't have to wait for your yoga mat to sit up straight and roll your shoulders back.

Yoga, as a whole, is for everybody and every body...

Photography by Cindy Marie Photography