YOGA AND THE EXPERIENCE OF EMBODIMENT: A DISCUSSION OF POSSIBLE LINKS

Abstract

The impact of yoga on body image and embodiment has been a recent area of focus in the field of body image and eating disorders. This paper comprises a theoretical discussion of how the practice of yoga can lead to positive ways of inhabiting the body, specifically through the lens of the Developmental Theory of Embodiment (Piran, 2017). Yoga may enhance the overall experience of embodiment, by having a positive impact on each of its five dimensions: body connection and comfort, agency and functionality, attuned self-care, subjective immersion (resisting objectification), and experience and expression of desires. The article therefore describes examples of teacher-related practices during yoga that can enhance each of these dimensions. Further, yoga teachers can consider the varied protective physical and social factors delineated by the Developmental Theory of Embodiment to facilitate positive embodiment. Future research should explicitly integrate embodiment theory with yoga interventions, as well as measures that assess both possible mechanisms of change and positive ways of living in the body.

Introduction

Yoga is a practice that involves physical postures, focused breathing, mindfulness and meditation. Yoga has the potential to influence all ways of life, including our daily thoughts and actions, how we understand ourselves at a deep level, and our interactions with the world around us. Although commonly considered a physical practice, yoga has the potential to extend well beyond physical engagement into all aspects of life. Indeed, yoga is an eight-limbed practice that involves asanas (physical postures), pranayama (breathing and energy work), pratyahara (internalization of the mind and senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), samadhi (absorption or unity consciousness), yamas (ethical attitudes and observances) and niyamas (ethical lifestyle practices) (Frawley, 2018). The Sanskit word ‘yoga’ has various meanings and is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj,” meaning “work,” “coordination,” and “integration” (Frawley). Yoga is defined as “union,” which may be interpreted as a state of oneness with our innermost self. Yoga is often described as the practice of uniting the different parts of ourselves – our physical, energetic, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves.

The impact of yoga on body image and embodiment, described here as individuals’ lived experiences in their bodies as they engage with the world (see Piran, 2017), has been a recent area of focus in the field of body image and eating disorders (e.g., Cook-Cottone, 2019; Neumark-Sztainer, 2019). A number of quantitative studies suggest that the practice of yoga is associated with positive ways of living in the body, with yoga practitioners having higher body satisfaction (Neumark-Sztainer, MacLehose, Watts, Pacanowski, & Eisenberg, 2018) and body responsiveness and awareness (Daubenmier, 2005). In a qualitative study, participants indicated that yoga had a mainly positive impact on their body image via perceived physical changes, gratitude for one’s body, a sense of accomplishment within one’s yoga practice, self-confidence, and witnessing different types of bodies practicing yoga (Neumark-Sztainer, Watts, & Rydell, 2018). This growing area of study needs to be further informed by research, including well-designed epidemiological, qualitative, and intervention studies that are informed by strong theoretical frameworks.

A comprehensive, research-based theoretical framework for understanding both the development and experience of embodiment is the Developmental Theory of Embodiment (DTE) (Piran, 2002, 2016, 2017; Piran & Teall, 2012). This paper comprises a theoretical discussion of how the practice of yoga can lead to positive ways of inhabiting the body, specifically through the lens of the DTE. We start with a description of theoretical constructs related to embodiment and the DTE, and continue by linking dimensions of embodiment, and the factors that shape them, to the practice of yoga. Our goals for this paper are three-fold.

First, linking theoretical constructs of the DTE, especially dimensions of positive embodiment and protective factors, with yoga practices, can highlight processes through which yoga can contribute to positive embodiment; teachers and practitioners can then deliberately enhance these processes to amplify the positive effects of yoga. Second, a greater understanding of DTE and its relevance to the practice of yoga could be helpful in informing theoretically-based research exploring the relationship between yoga and embodiment. Third, addressing both risk and protective factors to positive embodiment, the DTE has a range of implications to treatment and prevention (Piran, 2017). Examining the DTE in relation to yoga provides an opportunity to examine its utility in relation to a specific type of intervention.

Theoretical Constructs related to Embodiment and the Developmental Theory of Embodiment

The Construct of Embodiment in Critical Theory

The current understanding of the construct of embodiment is grounded in the writings of the French phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty (1962). In contrast to Cartesian ontology that viewed the mind and body as distinct, the body as a material object and the mind as a thinking subject (Crossley, 1995), as well as the mind as superior to the body (Bordo, 1993), Merleau-Ponty (1962) proposed that the mind and body were equivalent, intertwined and inseparable (Csordas, 1994; Howe, 2003). Further, he viewed the body not only as sensational but also as sentinel in perceiving, interpreting, and experiencing the world meaningfully (Crossley, 1995). For Merleau-Ponty, therefore, the body is the site of subjectivity, and embodiment refers to the “perceptual experience of engagement of the body in the world.” This interpretive “perceptual experience” is always in relation to a particular location of the body in the world; a dialectical relationship therefore exists between body and culture, and inner and outer, such that the body performs culturally informed practices, and, in turn, shapes culture (Crossley, 1995).

Foucault (1995) extended the theoretical discussion of embodiment, by examining the role of power in shaping embodiment. In particular, he suggested that modern societies exert power through restrictive social discourses which individual citizens internalize, such that they learn to live in docile, compliant bodies. Feminist scholars highlighted the role of gender inequity, in particular, in producing docile female bodies (Bartky, 1988; Bordo, 1989). De Beauvoir (1976) problematized the way in which a girl’s adolescent’s body is, “taken away from her (p. 346)” and Bordo (1989) described the experience of “insufficiency, of never being good enough (p. 14). The disciplinary power embedded in social discourses relates not only to gender, but to all dimensions of social location, including: social class, ethnicity/race and immigration, sexual orientation, gender identities, weight, health and physical ability, and other factors. For example, hooks (1997) problematized the continued disciplining and exploitation of African American women’s bodies through sexist/racist objectification. Individuals’ experiences of inhabiting their bodies are therefore shaped by intersecting dimensions of social locations (Buchanan, Settles, & Woods, 2019; Piran, 2017).

The Embodiment Research Program

Anchored in the discussions of embodiment and power in philosophy and critical theory, Piran and colleagues (e.g., Piran, 2002, 2016, 2017; Piran & Teall, 2012) conducted a mixed-method research program that explored, first, the quality of embodied lives and, second, the factors that shaped them. Theoretical constructs and pathways that emerged through a constructivist grounded theory analysis (Charmaz, 2006) of 171 interviews with 69 girls and women (e.g., Piran, 2017), and that were therefore anchored in girls’ and women’s narratives, were also tested using a range of quantitative cross-sectional methodologies (e.g., structural equation modeling: Piran & Thompson, 2008; multiple regression: Piran & Cormier, 2005; and scale construction: Piran, 2019; Teall, 2015).

Experience of Embodiment: Assessing the Quality of Embodied Lives

Regarding the quality of embodied lives, Piran (e.g., 2016, 2017) described the emergent multi-dimensional Experience of Embodiment (EE) construct, which ranges from positive embodiment: “positive body connection and comfort, embodied agency and passion, and attuned self-care” (Piran, 2016, p.47) to negative embodiment: “disrupted body connection and discomfort, restricted agency and passion, and self-neglect or harm” (Piran, 2016, p. 47). EE depends on the quality of experiences on each of its five dimensions: (a) body connection and comfort; (b) agency and functionality; (c) attuned self-care; (d) inhabiting the body as a subjective site (vs. objectification); and (e) experience and expression of bodily desires (see also Table 1). EE and its dimensions can be measured using the Experience of Embodiment Scale (EES) (Piran, 2019). EE as a whole, and, in particular, its first dimension of Positive Connection and Comfort, relates conceptually to other constructs that measure positive ways of living in the body, such as: body appreciation (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015), body flexibility (Sandoz, Wilson, Merwin, & Kellum, 2013), and functionality appreciation (Alleva, Tylka, & Kroon Van Diest, 2017); however, the construct of positive embodiment is broader in scope (Piran, 2016, 2019; Tylka & Piran, 2019), and also suggests the continuity of experiences between negative and positive embodiment, allowing to trace shifts in EE across the life span (Piran, 2016). While most of the research on EE has been conducted to date among cis-gender girls and women of diverse backgrounds, studies with the EES in Sweden (Holmqvist Gattario, Frisén, & Piran, 2018) and Norway (Sundgot-Borgen et al., in press) suggest that the scale has good psychometric qualities among adolescent and adult men.

Table 1.

Dimensions of the experience of embodiment, examples of practices that enhance them, and protective physical and social factors that are operating to enhance dimensions of embodiment through the exemplified practices

Dimensions of the Experience of Embodiment	Examples of Facilitative Yoga Practices	Activated DTE Protective Factors (Domain)
Dimension 1: Body Connection and Comfort	The practice of mindful “noticing” (e.g., of breath, impact of postures)	-Attuned, immersed, joyful physical engagement (Physical)
	Choice and flexibility in practices (e.g., related to ability, comfort, safety)	-Safety (Physical) -Opportunities to practice attuned care of the body (Physical) -Empowering relationships (Social Power)
	Practicing in diverse communities (e.g., weight, ethnicity, ability)	-Membership in communities of equity (Social Power) -Non-appearance-related social power (Social power) -Freedom from prejudicial treatment (Social Power)
Dimension 2: Agency and Functionality	Practicing with the experience of accomplishment (e.g., implementing a new pose, taking a pose just one inch deeper, or feeling joy in movement)	-Attuned, immersed, joyful physical engagement (Physical) -Countering learned social constructions (e.g., women’s bodies as deficient objects) (Mental)
	Engagement in Empowering poses (e.g., Warrior I & II), supplemented with empowering self-talk (optional)	-Countering learned social constructions (e.g., women as submissive, docile) (Mental)
Dimension 3: Attuned Self-Care	Emphasizing self-study in the process of practice (e.g., svadhyaya), while prioritizing body-anchored insights over a thinking mind	-Opportunities to practice attuned care of the body (Physical) -Countering learned social constructions (e.g., women as other- vs. self-attuned) (Mental)
Dimension 4: Inhabiting the Body as a Subjective Site (resisting objectification)	Internal attunement during practice to the integrated working of different body parts and breathing, and to other body sensations and internal experiences (through teachers’ verbal guidance, and class norms)	-Attuned, immersed, joyful physical engagement (Physical)
	De-emphasizing external appearance of poses	--Countering learned social constructions (e.g., women’s bodies as deficient objects) (Mental) -Non-appearance-related social power (Social power)
Dimension 5: Experience and Expression of Desire	Attunement to desires as an aspect of enhanced body- and inward- focus during practice (e.g., teacher can encourage responding to experienced needs to nourish the body& hydrate, during physical practices)	-Attuned, immersed, joyful physical engagement (Physical) -Opportunities to practice attuned care of the body (Physical) -Countering learned social constructions (e.g., women’s bodies as deficient objects) (Mental)

The DTE: Delineating Protective Experiences

The DTE provides an integrated, research-based, critical social theory into both protective and risk processes that shape EE (and its 5 dimensions) as one engages with the world (Piran, 2002, 2016, 2017). In line with the DTE, these risk and protective processes shape EE via three core pathways: the physical domain, the mental domain of social discourses and expectations, and the social power and relational connections domain.

For the purpose of this article, we focus on a brief description of the protective factors in each of these domains (for a detailed labeling and description of these factors, see Piran, 2017):

1. Physical Domain: (A1) immersed and joyful engagement in physical activities (non-objectifying/sexualizing; not aimed at achieving idealized bodies); (A2) safety; (A3) opportunities to practice attuned care of the body; and (A4) exposure to experiences that support and validate desire.

2. Mental Domain of Social Discourses: A limited exposure to, and a critical stance towards, widely disseminated stereotypes about gender, race/ethnicity, and other dimensions of social locations. For girls and women, the DTE describes the protective role of resistance to: (B1) experiencing the body as a deficient object; and (B2) acting in a docile manner (submissive, demure, small, not too powerful/loud/assertive/in control, and being other- rather than self-oriented).

3. In the social power and relational connections domain, the DTE highlights: (C1) freedom from prejudicial treatment; (C2) non-appearance-related sources of social power; (C3) the presence of empowering relationships (especially with individuals of similar social location); and (C4) membership in communities of equity.

According to the DTE, all these factors, concurrently, shape the experience of embodiment.

The Practice of Yoga and the Experience of Embodiment

Both the Experience of Embodiment construct and the list of protective factors delineated by the DTE can be useful towards fostering positive embodiment through the practice of yoga. First, the EE intra-individual construct suggests that yoga teachers and practitioners should be mindful of, and enhance, different dimensions of EE towards the goal of facilitating overall positive embodiment. We therefore organize our discussion of yoga and embodiment by discussing each of these dimensions and exemplifying the potential impact of particular yoga practices on them. Second, the list of protective factors delineated by the DTE can help highlight what particular facilitative physical and social experiences may be activated during particular yoga practices. Therefore, after describing suggested yoga practices, we highlight particular protective factors that are associated with them. This information is summarized in Table 1.

Body Connection and Comfort

This first dimension addresses both the quality of connection with, and the feelings towards, the body. At the positive end, individuals experience positive connection to their bodies and a range of positive feelings towards their bodies, such as pride, appreciation (of functioning, health, wisdom, etc.), care, or joy. At the negative end, individuals experience negative connection with, or disconnection from, their bodies. They also experience a host of negative feelings towards their bodies, such as: shame, fear, anger, or hate.

Yoga, as a physical, energetic, mental, and spiritual practice, has the potential to help enhance positive connection and comfort with one’s body, as well as a host of positive feelings towards the body, in line with the protective DTE factor, immersed and joyful engagement in physical activities. Mindful attunement to the body during practice, or “noticing”, is a central aspect of the practice of yoga, enhancing connection to the body. For example, the practice of yoga often starts and ends with sitting and noticing the breath, whereby a teacher invites participants to notice the breath prior to beginning the asana practice and at the end of the class, noting changes that may have taken place. A teacher can enhance such attunement by pausing in between physical poses and inviting students to examine the impact of the poses on a changed experience of the body. For example, in a yin practice in which yoga practitioners lie on the ground and work only with one leg at a time (e.g., using a strap to hold the leg vertical and then to each side for a few minutes in each pose), a teacher can ask students to pause and notice differences between the experience of their legs. The teacher may also cue for certain reactions (e.g., “you may notice that one leg feels longer than the other, or warmer, or that there is a sense of tingling, increased energy flow, or prana”). For yoga practitioners who practice on their own at home, it can be helpful to build in moments of pause in between postures, movement, and breathwork, to notice what one is feeling and enhance the connection with one’s breath and body. Yoga teachers can also remind students about how yoga practice can be taken “off the mat” such that they will continue to notice and respond to shifts in the experience of the body elsewhere, for example, pausing and deciding how to react in a social situation when one’s heart is beating more strongly and when feeling anxious.

Concurrently with strengthening one’s connection with the body, yoga has the potential to enhance comfort and a host of other positive feeling towards one’s body. The increased comfort lies in the wide range of poses and practices available for people of different physical abilities. This flexibility can provide opportunities to practice attuned care of the body, another protective factor in the physical domain of the DTE. The teacher can enhance such attuned and caring practice by acknowledging that some poses may not feel comfortable or safe for some students and offer ways to modify poses, encouraging students’ mindful attunement to their experiences and inviting their autonomy in deciding whether to modify, or not do, a pose. For example, poses in which the legs are spread wide may not feel comfortable for students who have been sexually violated and students should be given options of modifying the pose or doing a completely different pose. Similarly, rather than telling students to close their eyes during particular practices it can be helpful for teachers to say, “If you feel comfortable, you may close your eyes, to come inward, or you may focus your gaze with your eyes open.” Such available choices enhance the experience of physical safety, an additional protective factor in the physical domain of the DTE.

Within a culture that idealizes particular objectified body forms, challenging such norms and nurturing acceptance of diverse body characteristics works towards establishing the class as a community of equity, a protective factor for positive embodiment in the DTE’s social power domain. Further, the acceptance of diversity of body forms and movement establishes students’ experience of social power with others as free of appearance-based social power. Diversity in class composition and teacher in relation to a range of social locations (e.g., age, ethnicity, size) may reinforce equity and freedom from appearance-dependent acceptability. In interviews with young adults of different body sizes who practice yoga, they noted that witnessing different types of bodies practicing yoga helped them feel comfortable with their own bodies (Neumark-Sztainer, Watts et al., 2018). Yoga studios need to take active steps to ensure that students of all shapes, sizes, and abilities, and those from diverse ethnic/racial backgrounds, will feel welcome. Yoga teachers can also emphasize that while poses may look different on the outside, their impact on the inside does not depend on the external appearance of the pose (e.g., how far one can stretch forward). Accepting and cherishing each student’s body and journey with yoga establish, as well, important empowering relationships of teachers with their students, and students’ acceptance of, and positive feelings towards, their bodies.

Agency and Functionality

The second dimension of the EE addresses experiences of agency and functionality in the world, ranging from acting in the world with a sense of power through voice and physical competence to experiencing ineffectiveness and restraint.

Yoga can help enhance the experience of physical agency and functionality through engendering a sense of accomplishment associated with the immersed and joyful engagement in physical activities protective factor of the DTE’s physical domain. A sense of accomplishment or greater agency may come from implementing a new pose, taking a pose just one inch deeper, or simply feeling joy in movement. Specific physical poses can help the practitioner to feel more powerful, stronger, and more confident, and language by the teacher and self-talk can enhance the impact of the poses on one’s sense of agency. For example, Warrior I and II are very powerful poses. Their impact can be enhanced by the teacher’s use of language, encouraging students to feel their own power in these poses. In particular, the impact of these poses can be enhanced by linking the movement to breath and to qualities that one wants to enhance, and engaging in positive self-talk (i.e., mantras). For example, in Warrior I, on the exhale, the practitioner can bring one’s hands, breath, and sense of confidence into the solar plexus area or the third chakra, inhale, and say out loud or silently, “I breathe in confidence.”

Practicing poses such as Warrior I and II, denoting strength and assertiveness can help counter internalized disempowering social discourses among individuals exposed to social messages in relation to various dimensions of social location, such as: gender, age, ethnocultural heritage, or physical ability. Specifically in relation to gender, the poses can help counter the docility discourse transmitted to girls and women. The powerful positive process of relearning to inhabit the body with agency through performing movements of strengths and resistance that have been arrested due to exposure to adverse social processes of restriction and trauma has been highlighted by the sensorimotor approach to therapy (Ogden, Minton, & Pain, 2006). Yoga therefore can support in countering restrictive social expectations that disrupt the experience of embodiment.

Attuned Self-Care

Attuned self-care reflects the degree of attunement and responsiveness to the embodied self and its physical, emotional, relational, aspirational, and spiritual needs. Attuned self-care ranges from awareness and responsiveness to internal cues and needs to disconnection and non-responsiveness to such cues.

Yoga can enhance attuned self-care through providing multiple avenues of attunement to physical, social, spiritual, and other needs, as well as opportunities to practice such care. The physical practice of yoga, as described above in the Body Connection and Comfort, allows for attuned physical engagement and opportunities for individuals to take care of themselves during this physical engagement.

The practice of yoga further encourages one to come inward and explore oneself through self-study. The breathwork of yoga, for example, is a practice of attunement as one notices the speed, depth, and sound of the breath. Further, the ethical guidelines of yoga, as described in Pantajali’s sutras (Carrera, 2006) are the yamas and niyamas. Yamas have been described as self-regulating behaviors regarding interactions with other people and the world at large. Niyamas are personal practices that relate to one’s inner world (“Yoga’s ethical guide”, n.d.). One of the niyamas of relevance to the dimension of attunement is svadhyaya, translated as self-study or inner exploration. For example, restorative yoga that involves getting into a comfortable physical pose and staying in it, invites the practitioner to engage in an inner exploration. Questions posed during restorative yoga, or during meditation, can include, “What is it I really need to know? What does my heart desire?” One is then encouraged to listen to the answers that emerge from within as one is in restorative body position. When teachers pose the questions, it can be helpful to let students know that just the act of asking is enough, since an answer will not always emerge. It can also be helpful for teachers to remind students that instead of trying to answer the question from one’s thinking mind, it can be helpful to feel what emerges within one’s body (e.g., a sense of fatigue may indicate a need for rest, slowing down, and/or a strong desire for an internal sense of equanimity).

The invitation to engage in self-exploration and care can provide a balancing force to living in a culture that focuses on external actions and symbols of achievement. Further, for individuals who have learned to prioritize the care of others over self-attunement and care, such an invitation in yoga to practice care of oneself can be particularly important. For example, women often learn, since girlhood, to be other-(rather than self-) attuned and provide most of the care of others (Cerrato & Cifre, 2018; Piran, 2017; Ussher & Perz, 2010). As these and other authors indicate, the pattern of overriding and renouncing own needs, associated with the women as docile discourse cluster in the mental domain, has adverse long-term implications to women’s well-being. The practice of yoga then can counter these social expectations, and enhance care of oneself and positive embodiment.

Inhabiting the Body as a Subjective Site (vs. as an Objectified Site)

This dimension refers to inhabiting the body as a subjective site, ranging from immersion in subjectively perceived embodied experiences and meaningful pursuits to inhabiting the body as an object to be gazed at and engaging in ongoing activities aimed at compliance with appearance expectations, overriding comfort, safety, and pleasure.

The practice of yoga can be powerful in developing an inward lens in inhabiting one’s body. Practicing asanas requires an internal attunement to the integrated working and positioning of different body parts (e.g., muscles, spinal column, internal organs) to patterns of breathing. Concurrently, practitioners attune to other experiences associated with asanas and pranayamas, such as freedom, safety, power, relaxation, and pleasure or joy from sensing movement. Such internal attunement can be enhanced by teachers through linguistic guidance and the establishment of related class norms. Teachers can encourage students to listen to their bodies, trust their sensations, and learn to discern between helpful and unhelpful sensations. For example, with regard to the prior example of Warrior II, the teacher can help students further extend their arms out to the sides by suggesting that they adjust the pose in a manner that helps them breath more fully (“move so you can deepen your breath”) or feel a greater sense of opening in the heart region. Teachers can encourage students to notice emotions as they move into different poses such as feelings of joy, sadness, uplifting or relaxation. Language by teachers can help students notice these feelings or sensations, be curious about what they might mean in the greater context of one’s life, and to try not to judge the feelings as being desirable or undesirable.

The inward emphasis in the practice of yoga is important for all individuals living in a culture that places much importance on appearance and other external characteristics. Women, in particular, are exposed since childhood to social discourses that encourage them to inhabit their bodies as objects to be gazed at and to view their bodies as deficient, requiring ongoing surveillance and repair (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Piran, 2017). In yoga, three DTE protective factors combine, providing opportunities to resist objectification and be immersed in one’s subjective embodied experiences. First, yoga is a physical practice with a strong inward and positive focus, in line with the DTE protective factor of immersed and joyful engagement in physical activities (non-objectifying, non-sexualizing, and non-appearance or weight-related). Second, the practice of yoga, through its inward focus, and the valuing of the impact of asanas on internal experiences of the body rather than on the external appearance of poses, directly counter the constraining appearance-related discourses: the body as a deficient object. Third, as norms of de-emphasizing external appearance in yoga class are established, social power and connections with others become unrelated to appearance, in line with the protective factor of non-appearance-related sources of social power.

Experience and Expression of Bodily Desires

The fifth, and final, dimension addresses connection to appetite and sexual desire, ranging from experiencing bodily desires and responding to them in attuned, self-caring, and joyful ways, to experiencing disrupted connection to desire and its association with negative emotions.

Engagement in attuned, immersed, and joyful physical practices, opportunities to practice attuned self-care, experiencing physical safety, countering objectifying pressures, and other DTE delineated protective factors involved in yoga, can enhance not only connection with the body but also attunement to bodily experiences of desire. Regarding appetite, an increased attunement to one’s body may help in the recognition of signs of hunger and satiety, in addition to eating in accordance with one’s bodily needs. In an intervention study examining the impact of yoga on binge eating, McIver and colleagues analyzed participants’ comments in their personal journals for emerging themes (McIver, McGartland, & O’Halloran, 2016). Participants wrote about making healthier food choices due to a greater connection with the body and a greater understanding of the connection between what is eaten and how one feels as a result. Some participants wrote about enjoying food more. A mixed-methods study on a population-based sample of young adults found that yoga practitioners made healthier food choices; interview data revealed that yoga supported healthier eating through motivation to eat healthfully, greater mindfulness, management of stress and emotional eating, healthy food cravings, and the influence of the yoga community (Watts, Rydell, Eisenberg, Laska, Neumark-Sztainer 2018). In the second author’s experience in teaching yoga within an eating disorder treatment center, one woman commented that due to yoga she had experienced hunger for the first time in many years.

Regarding sexual desire, Brotto and colleagues (Brotto, Mehak, & Kit, 2009) have suggested that the greater ability to maintain a focused and non-judgmental mindful attunement to the body during the physical practice of yoga may serve as a pathway to enhanced connection to desire. Such focused body awareness may help address the impact of distractions on women’s sexual functioning (Dove & Wiederman, 2000). Further, studies suggest that self-objectification relates to self-consciousness during sexual contact and to decreased sexual functioning (Claudat & Warren, 2014; Steer & Tiggemann, 2008), and body shame is associated with lower sexual arousability and ability to reach orgasm (Quinn-Nilas, Benson, Milhausen, Buchholz, & Goncalves, 2016; Sanchez & Kiefer, 2007. It is therefore important that women practitioners of yoga have been found to be less likely to objectify their bodies, which also could enhance their desire (Impett, Daubenmier, & Hirschman, 2006), although further research is warranted.

The role of the yoga teacher in enhancing connections to desires is less clear-cut than for the other dimensions. It may be best for the practice itself to do its work with little needing to be said. Nonetheless, in therapeutic interventions with a yoga therapist, it may be helpful to ask clients about any changes they are noticing as a result of their yoga practice. For example, in working with clients with eating disorders, it may be helpful to ask questions about increased recognition of hunger and satiety cues, or increased enjoyment of eating, as a result of practicing yoga and coming inward to recognize and respond to one’s body’s needs. Further research is needed on the connection between yoga and experiences and expressions of desire, such as eating in response to hunger and enjoying the process of eating.

Conclusions and Future Directions

This article focuses on the practice of yoga and its potential contribution to positive embodiment, as informed by the Developmental Theory of Embodiment. As discussed, yoga may enhance the overall experience of embodiment by having a positive impact on each of its five dimensions: body connection and comfort, agency and functionality, attuned self-care, subjective immersion (resisting objectification), and experience and expression of desires. For yoga teachers, including teachers who use yoga towards therapeutic goals, these five dimensions can comprise specific goals (beyond a general goal of positive embodiment or body image) that can guide approaches to teaching, instructions and language used during class, and the establishment of class norms. For this reason, in this article, we have described examples of teacher-related practices that could enhance each of these dimensions, such as enhancing positive connection with the body while engaging positively in asanas through appreciating its functioning. In addition to practice recommendation, we suggest that research studies that aim to study the impact of yoga practices include a range of ways to assess positive ways of living in the body, such as: experience of embodiment (total score and its subscales; Piran & Teall, 2012; Piran, 2019, Teall, 2015), body appreciation (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015), mindful self-care scale (Cook-Cottone & Guyker, 2017), or the appreciation of body functionality (Alleva et al., 2017).

Further, in addition to outlining the five dimensions of the experience of embodiment, which is a multidimensional intra-individual construct that reflects the quality of embodied lives, the DTE also delineates protective (and risk) factors in the physical and social environment that facilitate positive embodiment. A systematic consideration of these factors can suggest ways to further enhance the experience of embodiment through yoga. In the text and in Table 1, we provided examples of the protective factors that may be particularly relevant to each of the yoga practices that we described. Teachers may find the list of physical and social protective factors delineated by the DTE, such as practicing care of the body, safety, non-appearance-related social power, or membership in communities of equity, useful to their teaching practices. Yoga studios can make their settings more conducive to the promotion of a positive experience of embodiment through active steps at recruiting and retaining yoga practitioners of diverse body shapes and sizes, genders, sexual orientations, abilities and disabilities, and ethnic/racial and socio-economic backgrounds (Cooke-Cottone & Douglass 2017; Neumark-Sztainer, Watts, et al., 2018; Picket and Cunningham 2017). The way in which yoga is portrayed also needs to be examined since challenging social processes may affect the practice of yoga adversely, limiting its potential contribution to positive experience of embodiment, and, even further, disrupting positive embodiment. For example, an analysis of the physical appearance attributes and attire worn by female cover models of a Yoga journal during the past 40 years found that more recent covers promoted objectified body competence and a drive for leanness (Webb, Vinoski, Warren-Findlow, Burrell, & Putz, 2017). As the experience of embodiment reflects the dialectical relationships between inner and outer, body and culture, yoga teachers and practitioners need to be mindful of the context within which yoga is portrayed and practiced.

The discussion of ways in which yoga may contribute positively to embodiment in this article relies on the application of constructs of the research-based DTE to the field of yoga, as informed by the second author ‘s (DNS) experiences as a yoga student, practitioner, and teacher. However, the suggested practices needed be tested empirically through planned interventions. In terms of research, the outlined protective factors and related practices may operate as mechanisms of change mediating outcome observed in intervention studies involving yoga practices. Inconsistencies in the outcome of yoga interventions may relate to variations in the presence of protective factors explored in this article. Intervention studies may aim at constructing yoga classes that specifically address particular protective factors that enhance positive embodiment. In order to facilitate the evaluation of these factors in yoga intervention studies, we devised a scale of these protective factors as they may apply to yoga (DTE-informed Yoga Practice Experiences: DTEYPE; Piran & Neumark-Sztainer, 2019; see Appendix A). These items were developed by the first author and they follow the detailed list of research-based protective factors that enhance positive embodiment delineated by the DTE (see a summarized list of these factors in the “The DTE: Delineating Protective Experiences” section of this manuscript, and in Table 1.2 in Piran, 2017, p.16). These protective factors emerged in three qualitative studies (Piran, 2017), and three quantitative studies (Piran, 2019; Piran & Thompson, 2008; Piran & Cormier, 2005; Teall, 2015). Further, the DTEYPE items resemble selected items from previously developed psychometrically-tested measures of the physical, mental, and social power domains of the DTE (see Teall, 2015). The second author suggested revisions to the wording of the items based on her experience as a researcher and yoga instructor. However, the DTEYPE scale itself has not been administered or studied psychometrically. It therefore requires a series of psychometric studies before it can be used as a research measure in outcome evaluation studies or other research.

The study of yoga in relation to embodiment and positive body image is a growing field of research. The DTE comprises one lens through which to examine this relationship, suggesting the potential contribution of a research-based embodiment theory on exploring yoga-related processes. In particular, the research-based DTE addresses dimensions of positive embodiment that may be enhanced through specific yoga practices. The DTE further delineates protective factors that contribute to positive embodiment, and can inform yoga instructors. Further research in this area is needed, in particular the exploration of DTE constructs among groups that have not been studied as extensively in embodiment research (such as men) and evaluation studies that explicitly integrate embodiment theory with yoga practices.