*Decolonizing Yoga* refers to the broader effort within yoga practice and scholarship to examine — and where appropriate, undo — the commercial, cultural, and racial assumptions baked into how yoga is taught in the West. The phrase covers writing, teacher-training reform, and a network of practitioners and academics, mostly anchored in the United States and India.
What the conversation involves
Three threads tend to come up. The historical thread looks at how yoga arrived in the West and what was lost or rewritten in the process. The commercial thread examines who profits from yoga as a wellness industry and on whose backs that profit is built. The practice thread asks what changes when teachers and students approach yoga with that history in view — what is taught, who is centred, which lineages are credited.
Why it shows up in wellbeing coverage
Yoga is one of the most visible practices that straddles wellbeing and identity. The decolonising conversation is uncomfortable but necessary for any honest discussion of yoga as a wellbeing tool — without it, coverage tends to flatten a complex tradition into branded studio classes. bavida treats the topic seriously rather than ornamentally.