Yoga IS a Religion (IMO)

This is just a short post to clarify why I don't practice Yoga.

Recently, when I was posting on FreeBeingFree about how I was dealing with my depression, I mentioned these non-Yoga stretching exercises. The ones I found are perfect for me - especially the nighttime stretch I've been doing.

Many people debate whether or not Yoga is a religion. Most of those people would probably agree with the following:

And while there is a lot of debate about whether or not Yoga is a religion, what matters to me as a Christian is that almost everyone agrees with the following:

Yoga (/ˈjoʊɡə/ (listen);^[1] Sanskrit: योग, lit. 'yoke' or 'union' pronounced [joːɡɐ]) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciousness untouched by the mind (Chitta) and mundane suffering (Duḥkha). There is a wide variety of schools of yoga, practices, and goals^[2] in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism,^[3][4][5] and traditional and modern yoga is practiced worldwide.^{[6] (source)}

And,

It is a philosophy and a spiritual practice and many people with different religious beliefs find it is a complement to their faith. (Source) [my emphasis]

My Christianity is the only spiritual practice I need. And any other spiritual practice is forbidden to me as we Christians are not to mix the sacred with the profane.

Anyway, I know that will offend a lot of the people who practice Yoga (a "spiritual practice", mind you) apart from Eastern religions and faiths. There are churches that provide Yoga classes. That baffles me And even if in doubt, shouldn't we as Christians, just abstain from the practice?

So I wanted to clarify why I was so excited to find stretching exercises that don't include anything that could glorify other gods and religions.

There are many other stretching exercises offered by Caitlin Englebert on her YouTube channel. 

Peace

--Free