The marketing of yoga as a pastime for only the young and beautiful is a troubling phenomenon for one local practitioner.
Kate Bendall, known as the Dunedin Yoga Lady in her fortnightly OAR FM radio show and podcast, has noticed an “explosion” of images depicting lithe and youthful yoga practitioners across social media.
“You could argue it’s a good thing, with more exposure and more people coming to yoga, but I think the opposite is happening,” she said.
Such images were falling into a very narrow band.
“I’m 55 now and started yoga when I was 18, so it’s this mixture of recognising for myself that the yoga that I see, doesn’t relate to me at all. There are so many other people out there who can benefit from yoga, particularly at the moment.”
Ms Bendall has been teaching yoga for over 20 years and practicing for 35 years consistently. Through her local Temple Yoga practice, she shares her experience of traditional classic yoga that includes mantra (sound), visualisation, meditation, philosophy, as well as specific bodily postures.
The radio show and podcast covers how yoga might help address some of the major struggles that people might face, such as anxiety and depression, as well as the deeper philosophies that listeners might apply to their daily lives.
Dunedin Yoga Lady airs every second Tuesday at 10.30am on OAR 105.4FM and 1575AM. Podcasts are available from oar.org.nz, Google podcasts and Apple podcasts.