Yoga has expanded across the globe, and people can be seen practicing it everywhere, from gyms to offices and even in space!
Much more than just good exercise, yoga can help people improve their mental health and spirituality.
This ancient mind-and-body bending practice has taken the world by storm and influenced some of the greatest minds in music and art.
Follow us on this journey through ancient wisdom, spiritual growth, and even modern science.
Some yoga practices are over 3000 years old.
The earliest mentions of yogic practices come from religious texts called the Vedas, specifically the Rigveda, which was written sometime around 1000 BC.
These traditions originated in the northern regions of India.
Yoga back then looked very different from the Westernized yoga we know today. It was much more focused on meditation and breathing exercises.
Yoga means “to restrain.”
In Sanskrit, योग (“yoga”) has the root word युज् (“yuj”), which means to yoke. Early practices of yoga were all about restraint or “yoking in” one’s senses and clearing one’s mind.
The idea of restraint is not necessarily meant as a prison but as a reference to self-control and self-discipline.
Another interpretation of the word’s history is yuj samādhau (to concentrate). This has been better described as “all possible states of awareness, whether ordinary or extraordinary.”
There are many types of yoga all over the world.
In its history, yoga has been adopted by many different cultures and religions. Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism all use yoga as a core practice in their religions.
In Hinduism, there is jnana yoga, bhakti yoga, karma yoga, kundalini yoga, and hatha yoga.
Each type of yoga represents a different method of attaining spiritual awakening, self-discipline, or connection to a deity.
Yoga was popularised in the West in the 1890s.
Swami Vivekananda has been credited with bringing yoga to the West. In 1893, he toured the globe, spreading his knowledge in Europe, North America, and even Japan.
In 1896, after years of touring, he simplified his understanding of yoga for a Western audience and published the book Raja Yoga.
The book was very successful and became the basis of the Western understanding of yoga.
A yoga session of 147,952 people took place in India in 2023.
On June 21, 2023 (International Yoga Day), 147,952 people gathered in Gujarat, India, to break the world record for most attendees at a yoga lesson.
This amazing event was achieved by the Gujarat State Yoga Board and Team Surat, breaking the previous record of 54,522 people set in 2017.
Yoga has its own record-breaking website.
Have you ever held a pose for so long that you think you may have done it longer than anyone else in the world? There’s a website for that!
The International Yoga Book of Records is the authority on all impressive yoga feats.
You can find everything from people who have held yoga classes for over 56 hours to the youngest yoga teachers out there.
There are 84 different asanas (poses) in yoga.
Traditionally, the 84 different asanas in yoga are meant to encapsulate the many different movements and postures the body can make, and most represent different forms found in nature.
Each asana may have many different variations, though, and new variations and schools of thought are constantly being created.
The oldest book of yoga comes from 400 BC.
Although yogic practices are mentioned in much older texts, the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali are the oldest known books dedicated to the practice itself.
Many of today’s yoga practices are rooted in the teachings found here.
A sutra is a collection of proverbs created over many years and often handed down from generation to generation. As knowledge is obtained, people add layers to them.
Yoga may slow the decline of brain function as you age.
Studies by MEDLINE, PsychINFO, PubMed, and more have shown that yoga increases brain function and health, helping to slow the effects of aging on your brain.
These studies have even shown that yoga can increase the size of your brain.
The studies documented a positive increase not just in physical health but mental health as well, particularly in decreasing stress, anxiety, and depression.
Some people practice doga.
In 2002, American actress Suzi Teitelman began practicing doga, or yoga with dogs.
The practice includes shorter classes where people and their dogs can meditate and stretch. The dogs are included in many different ways, including holding them as you stretch.
The idea of doga hasn’t gone down well with the yoga community, as many people see it as a fad.
Between 2023 and 2024, the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands all called for a ban on yoga with puppies, citing animal cruelty as a reason.
Some astronauts practice yoga in space!
Although the poses are somewhat easier in microgravity, astronauts like Samantha Cristoforetti use the practice to help with flexibility and mental health while on the ISS.
Cristoforetti has also got together with Cosmic Kids Yoga on TikTok to create a 20-minute yoga practice for microgravity. Ironically, there is little space for her yoga practice on the space station.
The Beatles helped popularize yoga in the West.
Towards the end of the 1960s, the Beatles became infatuated with Eastern mysticism and the teachings of transcendental meditation.
After meeting with a Maharishi in London, they traveled to India to stay at an ashram.
During the course of their stay, their music and style changed, as evidenced in their White Album.
Their popularity led to countless people all over Europe and America wanting to start practicing yoga and meditation.
Some people practice yoga while laughing.
Laughing yoga was created in 1995 by a doctor in Mumbai, India. During the sessions, people force themselves to laugh as a breathing exercise while performing the normal yoga poses.
According to people who practice this form of yoga, the act of intentional laughter can help relieve stress and depression.
It may sound silly, but laughing actually releases dopamine and serotonin, the hormones responsible for happiness. It also decreases cortisol, one of the hormones responsible for stress.
Yoga has evolved so much over the thousands of years that people have practiced it. I wonder how it will continue to develop as people continue to breathe and laugh their way through life and yoga.
So next time you roll out your yoga mat, whether you’re stretching solo or with your dog, remember the ancient origins of each movement.
Embracing yoga’s origins may just deepen your experience on the mat!
