Yoga is for everyone and we’re glad that people (AKA the internets) are finally starting to take notice. This recent post from magical listicle site BuzzFeed highlights the many curvy yogis who proudly post instagram photos of themselves practicing yoga with tags like #curvyyoga.* Bravo, ladies. And bravo Buzzies for pointing to the powerful positive body image and acceptance movement happening in yoga right now.
The poses aren’t all captioned correctly by the post’s author, but that’s besides the point so we’ll go ahead and let that slide. However, we do wish they would have referenced Anna Guest-Jelley’s Curvy Yoga (which some of the instagrammers may have actually been tagging), or Tiina Veer’s Yoga for Round Bodies, or, especially, the Yoga and Body Image Coalition working hard to make yoga more accessible and body positive. But they didn’t. So we did.
*Other lovely hashtags were #bodypositiveyoga, #sizedoesntmatter, and #yogaforeveryone. It should also be noted that some of the ladies featured didn’t choose to use hashtags at all, but to just share their yoga, like Amber Karnes (below) who has a blog called Body Positive Yoga.
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The fact that yogis of all shapes and sizes feel confident and free to post pics is great (even though we’re missing the guys!), but what’s even better is that students are finding yoga classes to be more welcoming. Some of the comments are wonderful and encouraging. We love this one from Hannah Carbaugh:
This makes me so happy. I am curvier, but love yoga. I sometimes feel out of place when I am in a room with all tall and thin women. But, the thing I love about yoga, is that sometimes, I will walk into the room and there will be people of all shapes an sizes, tall and thin, big burly men, elderly, overweight, and more! Namaste friends!
It’s not perfect, but it’s a good start for positive change. Namaste, friends.
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Earlier…
These women’s poses are much better executed than the ones on Lululemon’s Facebook page. They are actually being done correctly…and no obnoxious Wild Thing or Bakasana we see #everydamnday.
these, the whole project, are great, thanks yall.
i LOVE this.
so glad to see this getting attention! I personally know women who have turned away from yoga because of the feeling that they don’t fit in due to their weight. I hope this trend of body image self-acceptance (and self-love) continues. I’m glad to see Yoga Journal including more articles and photos of REAL women, and can only hope we see more of that highlighted via social media.
Reminds me why I love yoga…because it’s for everyone. 🙂
Practice is for everyone.
Yay. I liked this article too, and these images are a wonderful addition to the online world of yoga.
I just cancelled my Athleta catalog, and let them know that no one in there looked like me.
Their customer service rep responded “We have so many types of women to serve. Young, old, tall, thin that…” and I said “then why on earth would you only show one type?”
It’s good to talk about this more! yay!
Good for you!
Yay is right! These bold young women blow me away! Thanks for sharing.
Great that you pay attention to this! I also just started on Instagram, @Busy.Yogi: https://instagram.com/busy.yogi/. What I really want is to share the benefits of yoga with busy people living a stressful life. Regardless of their body size or whether they are flexible. Yoga is for everyone! Yoga is about awareness, not merely fitness. Although the latter will definitely come with practice of the former :-).