☀️ There’s more to yoga than just stretching
My mom taught me my first yoga poses when I was still in primary school, mostly so I'd have something to do with my breath when school started feeling like too much. A few years later, I downloaded a yoga app on a phone so basic it could only show me a static photo of each pose and a timer counting down. It wasn’t fancy, but it helped me dedicate a few moments of my day to only focusing on my breath. This helped me navigate my teenage years, when every day felt like the turning point of a dramatic novel.
It's been quite a few years since then, and yoga has stayed part of my daily life ever since. So when I came across an Indian yoga teacher's recent comments on how the West tends to reduce yoga to almost entirely the physical postures, leaving the breath and the mind out of it almost completely, it didn't surprise me. The word yoga itself comes from the Sanskrit for "to unite". It was never meant to be just about what your body looks like on a mat.
As today is World Yoga Day (yes, on June 21!), I thought it’s the perfect time to dig deeper into what yoga is, what benefits it brings, and why it can be the ideal addition to your daily routine.
📖 3 Articles to Spark Your Curiosity
It is never too late to benefit from Yoga
Yoga teacher Rashmi Ramesh has spent over 15 years teaching everyone from toddlers to 80-year-olds, and her own mother got rid of years of knee pain through a single deep squat pose. Her take on longevity has less to do with living longer and more to do with living better.
→ Read on Never Too Late
Yoga has many health benefits as you age, but is it also the secret to longevity?
Daisy Taylor attributes her 105 years, still practicing yoga in a chair, to the habit alongside her optimism. But the research behind her story is more nuanced than it first appears, and what yoga changes at a cellular level might surprise you.
→ Read on The Conversation
I Started Doing Yoga Every Day: It Completely Changed My Life
Melissa Eckman thought yoga meant being flexible, calm, and a little too zen for her taste. A friend dragged her to one class anyway, and within weeks she was practicing on the beach every morning before reshaping her entire career and moving across the country.
→ Read on Shape
🗞️ 3 Headlines Worth Exploring
The mind-altering power of yoga could improve your mental health
Brain scans show yoga practitioners have a thicker cerebral cortex and hippocampus than non-practitioners, areas that typically shrink with age. How can a sun salutation change brain structure itself?
→ Read on BBC Future
Yoga eases anxiety, insomnia, and fatigue in cancer survivors, study finds
A major clinical trial of cancer survivors found that just four weeks of gentle yoga meaningfully reduced mood disturbance, anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia, all without medication. Researchers found the sleep improvements were partly explained by the easing of mood and fatigue.
→ Read on The GuardianIndian guru urges broader view of yoga
Ahead of International Yoga Day, teacher Varun Veer says the West has reduced yoga to roughly 95% postures and almost no breath. He argues the practice was always meant to train the body, the breath, and the mind together.
→ Read on France24
☀️ 3 Actions to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Do one pose for the breath, not the shape
Pick any yoga pose you already know, even a simple one like child's pose or a seated twist. Hold it for ten full breaths, but instead of focusing on how the pose looks or feels, focus only on the inhale and exhale moving through it.
Try 5 minutes of pranayama
Before reaching for your phone tomorrow morning, sit for five minutes and just breathe with intention: slow inhales, slower exhales. This is the part of yoga that might matter most.Ask someone why they practice
If you know someone who does yoga regularly, ask them what keeps them coming back. Listen for whether their answer is about the body or about something else entirely. You might be surprised how often the real answer has nothing to do with flexibility.
⚡ 6 Quick Sparks
🧠 To watch: What yoga does to your body and brain
This TED-Ed animation breaks down the three core elements behind most modern yoga (postures, breathing, and contemplation) and asks whether the practice lives up to its reputation.
→ Watch on TED-Ed
🎉 To check: International Yoga Day 2026
This year's official theme is "Yoga for Healthy Aging," with a closer look at the poses chosen specifically to support balance, joint mobility, and calm at any age.
→ Read on Yogain
🧘 To try: The Yoga Poses Dictionary
A library of yoga poses, complete with images, descriptions, and the specific benefits of each one.
→ Explore on Pocket Yoga
📚 To keep in mind: 10 Types of Yoga Practices
From the fluid movement of vinyasa to the stillness of yin, a breakdown of the major yoga styles and which one might fit your goals best.
→ Read on Calm
🚔 To keep your yoga clothes away from a Waymo
A burglar in San Francisco used a self-driving Waymo to pull off a yoga-studio heist, and despite the car's cameras, police still haven't caught them.
→ Read on TechCrunch
🎥 To know: T. Krishnamacharya Asanas
A rare 1938 film, sponsored by an Indian maharaja, captures the man often called the father of modern yoga demonstrating postures alongside a young B.K.S. Iyengar.
→ Watch on Smithsonian
🎲 This week’s wonderfully random corner of the internet
🧘 Explore the Ancient Roots of Yoga
A Google Arts & Culture deep dive into where yoga comes from: the Sanskrit texts that first mentioned the word, the meaning behind terms like asana and pranayama, and how the practice made its way from northern India to a stage at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
→ Explore on Google Arts & Culture
📝 Word of the Week
Prana (Sanskrit) - the vital life force or energy, most directly accessed and regulated through the breath.
In yogic tradition, prana is what asana was always meant to serve. The postures exist to prepare the body to sit still and breathe well, not the other way around. And yet prana is often the first thing to get left out of a Western yoga class, the one that runs on a tight schedule and measures progress in flexibility. Practicing pranayama, or breath control, is how you really work with prana directly: slowing it down, noticing it, letting it move through you instead of rushing past it.
🧘♀️ Question of the Week for Introspection
When you're on the mat, what are you truly paying attention to: the shape your body is making, or the breath moving through it? And what might change if you flipped that order?
See you next Sunday! Until then, keep your eyes open, your questions big, and your sense of wonder alive.
Your curious internet friend,
Ruxandra
