10 Things I Learned From Flipping Through 50 Years of Yoga Journal

The past is often experienced through artifacts. With this in mind, a print magazine is among the ultimate forms of preservation: a compendium of musings, art, news, and more collected in an object that fits neatly in your hands and has the potential to exist for decades. It’s a reminder that editorial teams are simply stewards of something greater: a piece of anthropological history and a reflection of a nuanced, complicated, and entirely worthwhile conversation that continues to unfold.

During my first week as an editor at Yoga Journal, I was invited to Boulder, Colorado, to join the team in combing through years of back issues in anticipation of this year’s 50th anniversary. Prior to my arrival, the team set up long folding tables in our warehouse space and sorted through meticulously organized boxes, selecting one each of more than 300 (!) issues and displaying them face-up in chronological order on the tables. The result was an at-a-glance visualization of several decades of yoga coverage—essentially, an overview of yoga’s unfolding in the West.

Poring over a half-century’s worth of a magazine is a humbling thing. As I skimmed and absorbed, I found myself taking mental notes about yoga, philosophy, and the art of making magazines. Following is what I learned.

10 Things I Learned from 50 Years of Yoga Journal

The pages of Yoga Journal are full of wisdom—especially when viewed from beginning to end.

1. Yoga can be difficult to translate into print

How do we talk about yoga? That would-be-simple question is asked over and over throughout the YJ archives, posed by writers and teachers alike. Yoga is a path for experiencing life, which means it can apply to anything and everything—but go too broad with it and you’re likely to lose the thread. The opposite proves true, too, with the occasional pondering feeling navel-gazey or self-congratulatory or otherwise lacking in mindfulness.

So, how does one cover yoga in a yogic manner? It’s a question we constantly ask ourselves today.

2. Yoga is enigmatic

Yoga is so many things at once: philosophy, physical practice, spiritual pursuit. It’s about stilling the mind and honoring the breath. It’s at once serious and playful, calling for commitment and a willingness to go with the flow. It’s contradictory while making perfect, divine sense.

3. Wellness and yoga go hand in hand…

In the 1990s, Yoga Journal changed its ’80s tagline from “The Magazine for Conscious Living” to “For Health and Conscious Living.” This mirrored a growing interest in alternative medicine and positioned YJ as an authority in both the health and spiritual spaces. Ayurveda—which speaks to the time-honored ties between health, nutrition, self-care, and the practice of yoga—is traditionally considered to be the “sister science” of yoga.

4. …and so do yoga and “woo-woo” 

Yoga may be the lens that guides Yoga Journal’s coverage, but the magazine’s focus has fallen on all sorts of content over the years, including the spiritual as well as the entirely esoteric.

Past issues of YJ covered dream interpretation, included poems and short stories, delved into mythology, promoted the healing powers of crystals, and profiled energy workers. The 1970s issues are best described as trippy, charming, and grounded in a sense of playfulness.

Because what is yoga if not permission to release judgement?

5. The yoga space has welcomed counterculture

Although these days the practice of yoga is widely accepted, its introduction to the West was met with a fair amount of skepticism. This may be why yogis have usually been accepting of the fringes of thought and society. In the past, Yoga Journal coverage has touched on psychedelics, communal living, herbal medicine, and more.

6. Practicing yoga means caring for our planet

Yoga and mindful living are intertwined. And one of the most mindful things a human being can do is recognize that we are a part of nature, not above it, and choose to live accordingly.

7. Yoga is not a cure

The evolution of yoga in the West came with some confusion around the purpose of yoga. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, yoga was often positioned as a cure-all in the pages of YJ, promising grace, poise, beauty, energy, flexibility, strength, youth, and more. “Be Happier,” “Stress Less,” and “Be Strong,” were some of the coverlines that stood out.

In the present tense, we are very careful not to publish content that promises healing. That pursuit is always individual.

8. Diversity is essential

Revisiting YJ throughout the 2010s is tough. One of my notes from those archive days in the warehouse reads “white women on parade,” and I think that sums up the covers featured throughout the decade fairly well.

We (as in the collective “We”) have always asked what, and who, yoga is for. The answer is everything and everyone. And though there’s still work to be done in terms of accessibility, inclusivity, and affordability, we are drawing closer to celebrating that fact.

9. The way we do yoga is the way we do life

This truth is one that comes up frequently in YJ meetings and yoga classes: the way you show up on your mat is the way you show up in the world. Sure, maybe that’s a slight generalization, but when you pay attention, it becomes evident that the energy you bring to one thing often touches, well, everything.

And after looking through more than five decades of editorial content, I can attest that the reverse is also true: the way we practice yoga is a reflection of the larger world.

10. Though much has changed, the heart of yoga remains the same

If YJ’s archive is a time capsule that showcases shifts in society, then yoga is the stillpoint at its center. It was jarring yet affirming to open a pamphlet from the 1970s, a cartoon-covered issue from the 1990s, and a glossy magazine from 2020 and see the same themes, poses, and overall messaging featured throughout.

Things change. But even if the image or perception of yoga morphs and shifts, the essence of yoga is always there, waiting for us.

This article is part of our look back at the last 50 years of yoga in commemoration of Yoga Journal’s 50th anniversary. Here’s where you can read more.