The West has a history and a heritage of appropriating indigenous customs, beliefs and traditions. Colonization runs deep in our inheritance. It's a challenging truth that is often easier to avoid because it challenges everything we know, what we've been taught, our way of life. But facing it is necessary to restore balance, connection, equilibrium. In the West's race to steal what suits our interests we've diminished the ancient history and knowledge that indigenous people's have known for generations, for centuries.

The philosophy of yoga goes back millennia and we're watering it down at a rapid pace. The yoga we know today hasn't been around all that long. In fact the real trend of it — the physical practice — has really only been around for about 100 years. Asana is one of Patanjali's 8 limbs, but it isn't as central as we've made it out to be. In the Yoga Sutras, the space Patanjali gives asana only makes up about 2%. That's a very small percentage of the whole. That means 98% of the Yoga Sutras talks about everything but asana.

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But if yoga is only 2% of the whole of yogic philosophy, what makes up the rest?

Great question!

The other 7 limbs are — the Yamas, the niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.​ Yoga is a whole way of life. A whole, complete approach to how we live and move through this world. The 8 limbs are a process to restore the mind-body-soul connection, which is the whole meaning of yoga. Patanjali's 8 limbs cover our whole interaction with life — moving from the most external, the Yamas, to the most internal, Samadhi. It's comprehensive. To truly practice yoga, a practice in each limb is necessary.