What You Need to Know About Holi, the “Festival of Colors”
This festive event has a history and culture as colorful as you might imagine.
History of Yoga
From the beginning of yoga, to the yoga sutra, to modern types of yoga, we answer the yoga history questions you’ve always been wondering about the ancient practice.
What Do You Do When a Pose Name Is Problematic?
The common translation for Pāśasana (Noose Pose) is not only controversial, it's also inaccurate. Here's what we learned when we tried to untangle the Sanskrit word’s true meaning.
Latest in History of Yoga
Let’s Talk About Yoga & Faith
YJ Senior Editor Tamara Jeffries set out to answer some perennial questions about whether yoga is secular or spiritual. What she discovered: It’s both. And more.
Everything (And We Mean Everything) You Ever Wanted to Know About Tantra
It’s not just about pleasure or sex. Tantra promises a closer connection to the divine through deeper intimacy with others.
How Learning Bharatanatyam Classical Dance Helped Expand My Understanding of Yoga
This spiritual movement has transformed my established practice of yogasana—and connected me deeper to the Divine.
Why I Don’t Celebrate International Day of Yoga
A devoted yogi contemplates the meaning of the co-opted celebration.
The Story Behind Rosa Parks and Yoga
How Georgia State University professor Dr. Stephanie Evans uncovered pictures of the iconic Civil Rights activist practicing asana.
Are You Traveling to India for the Right Reasons?
A scholar of critical race theory and a yoga teacher explore the problematic ways Westerners describe their travels to India.
Why Yoga is More Than the Poses You Practice In Class
A yoga movement and dance teacher examines her experiences with kirtan—from Sikh temple on Sundays with her family to concerts and festivals with hundreds of people in the crowd.
What is Yoga? Understand The History Behind the Practice
A myriad of historical information exists, so let’s start with building a foundation.
The Importance of Mysore and Pune, India for Yoga Lineage
Learn more about the birthplace of Ashtanga Yoga and Iyengar Yoga.
What’s the Difference Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Appreciation?
A first-generation Indian-American yoga and mindfulness researcher and teacher reflects on what feels misrepresented and appropriative to her in modern yoga.
Yoga Journal’s Response to the January 2019 Covers
Tasha Eichenseher, Yoga Journal's Brand Director, responds to the comments about the two covers.
These Yoga Tattoos Are Wildly Popular. But Is Getting One a Good Idea?
Getting inked with one of these designs may have personal meaning, but are they divorced from the broader cultural significance that makes these symbols so powerful and enduring?
5 Things We’d Put In Our Yoga Museum If We Had One—& What They Can Tell Us About Yoga History
Yoga historian Philip Deslippe looks at the insight a few unusual yoga-themed pieces of pop culture can offer into the popular perception of the practice in America over the last century.
Technology Isn’t Actually New to Yoga: A History of Multimedia & the Practice in America
In the age of Instagram, yoga historian Philip Deslippe takes a look at how yoga has in fact embraced new forms of media and technology since its debut in the West. The question now: What will be next?
7 Forgotten Early Yoga Teachers in America with Stories You’ll Want to Hear
Most people think hippies and Hare Krishnas were among the first American yogis, but in fact dozens of people with remarkable backgrounds were teaching the practice in the U.S. decades earlier. You won’t believe you’ve never heard these fascinating stories before.
Why Sun Salutations Are So Much More Than Just a Warm-Up
You deserve to reap the profound rewards of the humble (yet powerful) Namaskar.
Where Did Sun Salutations Come From?
This two-minute primer traces Namaskars—and the pieces missing from modern practice—back thousands of years.
Why Your Downward Dog Isn’t Necessarily Yoga
Yoga teacher Carola Lovering left YJ LIVE! New York with some existential questions about the practice of asana. Here she breaks down how a modern-day yogi can make sense of what we’re really doing on the mat.