Learn about transformative and balancing practices of yoga.

How can we see yoga in its historical and also practice context? What are the basic assumptions about yoga for this training? What do we mean by "embodied practice"?

The presentation below will serve us as a base for further lectures that will introduce us to comparative multi-style study of yoga.

See below the video, and also further text and tasks.

"Broadly speaking, embodiment refers to the entire physical context of the human body where social values, environment and various dispositions in and through the body are a result of the reflection that happens in a symbiosis between the body and the mind (Barsalou, Barbey, Simmons, & Santos, 2005; Strathern & Stewart, 1998; Varela et al., 1991).

Embodied cognitive science holds that the mind is inherently embodied in such a way that our conceptual systems and our capacity for thought is shaped by the nature of our brains, our bodies and bodily interactions with the environments we live in (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, pp. 3-6, 265). Barsalou et al. informs that, "embodiment refers generally to the entire physical context of cognition, including not just bodily states, but also modality-specific systems and environmental situations" (Barsalou et al., 2005, p. 24). Within this also lies the statement that cognition depends on the sensuous experience of actually having a body, and that cognition does not take place without physical interaction (Varela et al., 1991, p. 73). The embodiment-theory states that there is no mind “separate from and independent of the body, nor are there thoughts that have an existence independent of bodies and brains” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, p. 265). "

Sigrid Steen Haugen is a part of the Zenit Yoga Team and has shared her Masters in Religious Studies with us to deepen the perspective of yoga as an embodied, ritualized practice.

Sigrid has an MA (2016) in Religious Studies that revolved around yoga, embodiment and body pedagogics, cognitive science, emotion theory and motivation theory. Later, she has taken a BA (2019) in Counceling and Adult Learning on the topic of holding space for existential issues in the climate chaos of the Anthropocene. Sigrid started her yoga journey at the age of 12 in 2001, and has since been (amongst various roles at Zenit Yoga in Trondheim) a co-owner at Zenit, co-founder and teacher of Zenit Yoga Teacher Training (ZYL) 200 hrs and an examiner for the ZYL300 Teacher Training Course.

Read chapter 5 ("The Body") in Sigrids Thesis: 'Moving and Feeling; An exploration of the play between motion, emotion and motivation in yoga practitioners in Norway' .

TASK:

Reflect - How does yoga shape the body? How does the body shape yoga? Why can yoga be seen as an embodied ritual practice?

Write your thoughts in the comments below. Sigrid is also available for questions about the topic.