It seems now days everywhere you go there are signs and brochures for yoga classes. There is a plethora of yoga accessories available to pick up at almost any store. And if you pay close enough attention there are even several types of institutions dedicated to teaching yoga. I know of a few people who have become instructors, even people who have gone to places like Costa Rica to learn yoga. This popularity or trend of yoga in the U.S leaves me with one big question. Why is yoga so widely accepted.
Frequently I find myself in the position of explaining myself in terms of my meditation practice. People at times have poked fun, or more often have looked at me like I am talking about some type of alien concept. One women even asked me if during meditation I am chanting to some type of anti-Christian god. These reactions don't deter me or even sway my opinion of meditation but they do make me wonder... It seems wild to me that meditation, which is actually a practice that was born from yoga, is so foreign in a country that is so taken with it's origin practice yoga.
Well after doing some deliberating of my own I decided it was time to get some outside opinions. So I made a survey. It attempts to answer the question why yoga; why not meditation? Well it really isn't either or, but just why is the one so popular. What I found is that we really value physical activity in America. The survey wielded somewhat of an indifferent result, but this was not a bad thing.
Nearly 60% reported they would be more likely to practice yoga than meditation. Unanimously
people said they preferred yoga for the physical activity and physical benefits such as flexibility. Every survey taker reported trying meditation at one point in their lives, so we can rule out the fact that these answers are being reported blindly.
The question that I found had the most interesting response was this: Do you believe that meditation is something you could benefit from? Is meditation something you are willing to do or is it out of your comfort zone and why? " Yes - I have benefited from it in the past, especially during my younger years as a competitive athlete. It is something I am willing to continue, though I implement it much less as I primarily used it as a pre-performance technique for relaxation and visualization." I love this response because it shows that an American at a young age was able to implement meditation in their life with a very successful outcome.
"I personally do not meditate as my mind tends to wander and generally toward unpleasant thoughts. Instead of in a peaceful and centered mindset, I end up agitated." This answer is one that I am familiar with, not personally as I benefit greatly from meditation, however I know many people who cannot allow themselves to "get in the zone" of meditation. This is a very real aspect, I believe, that makes people not want to meditate. I have often wished that there were some way I could help these people to see that, in fact, mediation aims to tame these types of thought.
Over all what I see is that Americans put physical activity on a pedestal, one that is surely important, yet ever forgetful of the importance of the mind body connection. America has had sort of a cognitive dissonance in terms of the mind body connection since the beginning. Again this is not that I am saying yoga doesn't aid us in the mind body connection. What I am saying is that meditation sort of puts us in the captains chair of our mind body connection. And it seems to me from all of this inquiry that Americans indeed value the physical over the mental, and this must somehow be why we are more willing to participate in yoga.
