Now, if you’ve been doing yoga for some time, you will recognise a bunch of poses that are inspired by animals. I mean, imagine a vinyasa class without multiple Adho Mukha and Ūrdhva Mukha Svānāsanas (downward and upward facing dog respectively). And if you’ve ever struggled with a back problem (I have one), I’m pretty sure your yoga teacher would have led you through a cat-cow stretch or spine-strengthening asanas like Bhujangasana (cobra pose) and Ustrasana (camel pose). Throw in those balancing poses like Kakasana (crow pose) and Mayurasana (peacock pose) or relaxing ones like Makarasana (crocodile pose) and you have quite the menagerie, so to speak.
No one seems to know exactly why there are so many animal-derived poses. But the general consensus on most yoga websites is that the ancient yogis, who drew their inspiration from the natural world around them, found animals to be super enlightening.
I have no doubt there is plenty of merit in that statement: fur on a pair of yoga pants adds to character, for sure. And I bet, even that old fashion snob Karl Lagerfeld will agree: his pet cat Choupette travels business class, eats caviar and makes more money than most of his models.
So perhaps bringing in real animals into your yoga class is just an extension of that ideology. It began with Goat Yoga (I kid you not) that first started a year or so ago by Lainey Morse at the No Regrets Farm in Albany — she now has a 1,000-people-long waiting list. Yoga and goats work together because, “they chew their cud and go into a meditative state,” she is reported to have said. Which is perhaps why, in December last year, the Denver International Airport decided to turn a storage room into a goat yoga studio, welcoming weary, travel-sodden holidayers with a yoga instructor and a dozen ruminates. After all, as Morse said, “It’s hard to be sad and depressed when there are baby goats jumping on you.”
Constant toss-up between going for a yoga class and taking Fido for a nice, long walk? Well, turns out you no longer have to choose: you can just take him along with you for a class. Enter Doga. Created by Florida-based Suzi Teitelman, it’s a regular yoga class that incorporates dogs into your practice. Planks with a pooch on your back will give you a core of steel, for sure. (Or leave you sprawled across the mat, go figure.)
The latest entrant to this list — and this is probably the one I would attend, if it ever trudged across sea and shore and reached Chennai — is kitten yoga. Apparently, animal welfare organisations are partnering with yoga studios and releasing kitties in class. Trust me, it really ups your awareness and increases endurance. I once managed to hold an Urdhva Dhanurasana or upward bow (an intense back bend that sees you balancing your body on your feet and palms alone) for five minutes flat, because my cat had decided to power nap under my suspended bottom.
And you know what the nicest part about kitten yoga is: every kitten in that class is up for grabs and you head home with not just a yoga glow but your own little ball of fur. And for all those yoga puritans (I used to be one, I must admit) who will shake their head and say disapprovingly, “This is not yoga,” I simply quote yoga’s bad boy Eric Paskel who believes that yoga isn’t so much about tightening your buttocks (since this is a family newspaper I am not using the slightly ruder term he actually uses) but, “about getting your head out of it.”
And since sharing your mat with an animal helps you do it, it is yoga, as far as I am concerned.
