United by Yoga

Next time you take a yoga class, notice who’s in the room. Chances are it’s a pretty homogeneous crowd (read: white and thin with disposable income, mostly female). But the benefits of the practice know no boundaries of race, gender, size, physical ability, or socioeconomic status. Here, the deeply personal stories of four pioneers who, inspired by their own unique experiences with yoga, are changing the face of the practice and uniting us all in the process.

CHELSEA JACKSON ROBERTS

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP in Dayton, Ohio, in the ’8os, I did a lot of quintessential “American” things: I was a cheerleader, a ballet dancer, a gymnast. And yet I knew that I was not the ideal American woman. She did not look like me; her image in the media—white, super thin—did not reflect me, a black girl with a very athletic build. Our differences were only reinforced by what I experienced in my world every day. Constant remarks from my gymnastics coach, like “Tuck in your butt, Chelsea,” made me feel like I had failed—by no effort on my part other than walking in a black girl’s body. And when I traveled to national cheerleading competitions, the girls who won and appeared on the cover of the competition magazines did not look like me. It was not a surprise, but I also knew early on that it was not OK.

As a teenager trying to meet the standard ideal of a cheerleader’s body type, I developed an eating disorder—one I carried throughout high school and even returned to in early adulthood. In fact, the first time I walked into a yoga class, I was there because I wanted to lose weight. I had recently finished my master’s degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the stress from working as a public school teacher combined with my unconscious relationship with food caused me to put on pounds. So when I heard that hot yoga would help me lose weight, I said, “Sign me up!”

It was not necessarily love at first sight—I fainted! I’m not really sure what happened, I just woke up with cold towels on my forehead. I can’t believe I ever went back, but I’ve always had this attitude of “I’m going to see this through.”