Here’s the video shown at the Asian Art Museum – NOTE: TODAY is the last day to visit the exhibit, ” Yoga, Art of Transformation”… San Francisco/Berkeley/Bay Area is the epicenter of Western Modern Yoga in America (what about NYC and LA?) – the timeline exhibit brought that idea home.
Following is an excerpt from Yoga Journal Releases 2012 “Yoga in America” Market Study:
SAN FRANCISCO – The latest “Yoga in America” study, just released by Yoga Journal shows that 20.4 million Americans practice yoga, compared to 15.8 million from the previous 2008 study, an increase of 29 percent.
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The 2012 study indicates that 8.7 percent of U.S. adults, or 20.4 million people, practice yoga. Of current non-practitioners, 44.4 percent of Americans call themselves “aspirational yogis”—people who are interested in trying yoga.
The study also collected data on age, gender, and other demographic and lifestyle factors. Of the yoga practitioners surveyed:
Gender: 82.2 percent are women; 17.8 percent are men.
Age: The majority of today’s yoga practitioners (62.8 percent) fall within the age range of 18-44.
Length of practice: 38.4 percent have practiced yoga for one year or less; 28.9 percent have practiced for one to three years; 32.7 percent have practiced for three years or longer.
Level of practice: 44.8 percent consider themselves beginners (22.9 percent are new to yoga; 21.9 percent are beginning to practice yoga after taking some time off); 39.6 percent consider themselves intermediate; 15.6 percent consider themselves expert/advanced.
Motivation for practice: The top five reasons for starting yoga were: flexibility (78.3 percent), general conditioning (62.2 percent), stress relief (59.6 percent), improve overall health (58.5 percent) and physical fitness (55.1 percent).
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The above data is from 2012, i.e., 2 years ago… given that, the number has no doubt grown even more… for someone who started taking low key Hatha yoga class at Berkeley YMCA during her college years to manage stress… this development is rather startling and …awesome. Who knew?
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About 18% men and 82% women? Interesting as it began as a discipline by and for boys and men where girls and women were not even allowed to practice. Thanks to first generation of yoga teachers like Judith H. Lasater to bring the yoga wisdom to the everyday, for both genders. We don’t necessarily have to be paying a pilgrimage in India (someday!) to get the top notch instructions that addresses the tensions and pains from the everyday modern life. We can let go of the suffering as we learn from the likes of her, who is authentic and… “REAL”. She is the master in the art of transmission. And she’s lived a life like you and I… perhaps holding down a job, perhaps raising children or taking care of family, perhaps volunteering in the community, schools… all the while practicing with devotion. Many of us do not have the means to check out from the everyday to check into the Ashram, nor into the cave in the Himalayan mountains .. Rather she’s practicing yoga that’s relevant to us HERE. Now … on this soil. That’s the kind of yoga we need. Our great teachers are amongst us, teaching us to discover the greatest of all teachers, the guru… and that guru is within each and everyone of us.
