05/09/2026
What is Cultural Appropriation in Yoga?
Having practiced yoga in some form since I was a teenager, becoming passionate about studying it since my 20s and finally training to teach it in my early 40s, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, because I grew up in Hampshire, have only been to India twice and did my yoga training in Devon, so potentially, I have no right to even comment on this subject.
The questions I had started to need answers, partly after spending time at the World Yoga Festival in Henley in Thames the UK this summer, having conversations there, and after talking with friends and fellow yoga teachers, some of which felt confusing and left me wondering.
As a yoga teacher, it’s something I would feel devastated to ever be accused of, in any part of my work, so I wanted to look deeper into what is classed as cultural appropriation and to ensure I wasn’t delving into its murky depths in any way.
So what is it? And how do we make sure we’re not misrepresenting or misappropriating this sacred practice?
Well, that really sums up what it isn’t. By honouring yoga as an ancient sacred practice, rooted in India and having thousands of years of lineage, holding respect and gratitude for the yogic traditions that take us back through the Vedic texts and, later, to Patanjali and beyond, we are ensuring that we hold yoga within its appropriate cultural heritage.
The problem is, modern, Westernised yoga does not always do this. How many times have you heard a yoga teacher, or student, describe someone else’s class as ‘a bit too spiritual’, or ‘she’s a bit too woo woo’, or ‘I love the yoga but I don’t like all the chanting and meditation’, etc., etc.?
This is where we blur into cultural appropriation. By taking the bits of yoga we like, the stretches, the balance, literally the ‘pose’, and using the sacred symbols as a decoration on a sweatshirt but avoiding using them as they were intended, we are stripping it of its authentic roots and diluting it down like a cultural cordial into something that suits our Westernised palate a little more comfortably.
I would argue, if you don’t like yoga in its entirety, honouring the lineage by using the Sanskrit language, opening and closing your practice with a mantra or meditation, offering gratitude and respect to both the ancient and modern scholars and gurus, the teachers and Swamis, retelling the stories of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses, and exploring the Bhagavad Gita, then perhaps accept that yoga isn’t for you. And that’s OK, there are plenty of alternative ways to move your body, make shapes and enjoy exercise.
It’s simple, go to BodyPump or Pilates.
Stripping yoga of all that is spiritual within the practice is like going to a Christian church service on a Sunday morning and complaining it’s too ‘Christian’, you just wouldn’t go, right?!
I don’t believe there is anything at all wrong with our Western culture becoming so passionate about yoga as a practice. It’s powerful, it helps us to heal, and sadly, our lineage to our ancient roots was lost along the way. We don’t have an ancient cultural alternative to yoga.
I am quite sure we did, but in amongst the slaughtering of our Celtic heritage and all memory of how we, in the West, stayed well and peaceful thousands of years ago, we just don’t have that system of health that other Eastern cultures do. Buddhism, Hinduism, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Yoga and more, these are beautiful and powerful ways to stay well, not just by moving our bodies and making sacred shapes with them, but by studying the stories, the texts, the wisdom.
Whilst in Sri Lanka, I had a lovely chat with one of our homestay hosts.
“You sent your missionaries here to the East to try to convert us all to Christianity, and now you are all coming here in your hordes to try to get away from your Christian cultures and learn from us, the Hindus and the Buddhists, to help you make sense of your lives,” she chuckled.
We did too, thinking of how much things have turned around and changed in our generations, tired of consumerism, greed and controlling systems that offer us no soul, nothing to cling to, to help us make sense of it all.
Yoga offers so much. If you practice and have had the gift of finding a teacher who has shown you the true, whole picture, not just the lunge and the one-legged balance, then you all know this too.
It’s life-changing, awe-inspiring, soul-level, joy-filling, heart-opening and mind-blowing at times.
It challenges you, guides you, teaches you and often forces you to take a really good, long and deep look at yourself in the mirror it holds up to your soul.
If you choose to take a diluted-down, ‘not at all woo-woo’ version, you will undoubtedly get strong thighs and biceps if you do enough Chaturangas, and you will learn how to breathe.
If you make the decision to practice all ‘Eight Limbs of Yoga’, change your life to come into better alignment with the Yamas and Niyamas, the ethics, observances and guidelines for living an authentic life, if you practice regular meditation, study the ancient texts, read or listen to the scholars and gurus, if you find your Dharma, your soul path and purpose here in this life to support others and all life, your life will change fundamentally and beyond your comprehension.
I could be wrong, but I feel that it doesn’t matter if you practice in a temple on a mountain or in a village hall in Surrey, whether you wear h**p yoga pants or Sweaty Betty, it doesn’t matter if you play Deva Premal or Daft Punk whilst you practice, it doesn’t matter what colour your skin is, where you were born or where you or your teacher did your 200-hour yoga teacher training.
What matters is that you practice from the heart, that you practice with respect and gratitude, and that you practice yoga as an entire system within your entire life, day in, day out, to the best of your ability.
Love Saira Francis xx
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