What Cultural Appropriation Feels Like

At 9 years-old I was animated and adventurous. 

At school though, I was painfully awkward and shy. At school, I was bullied. 

On the playground, kids threw sand at me and teased me about my name.

Pooja Virani. My classmates couldn’t spell it or pronounce it.

I thought that it would get better.

It didn’t.  

In high school, I was one of 10 South Asian students at my school.  

I thought that it would get better.

It didn’t. 

In yoga trainings and classes the other students didn’t know how to say my name. They had learned how to say Virabhadrasana, Upavistha Konasana, and other Sanskrit names of yoga poses, but were unfamiliar with the name Pooja - a name as common as Sarah or Jessica in India, the country in which yoga originated.

You see, they studied yoga as a form of exercise, a mindfulness and relaxation practice, or a career path without truly understanding the cultures or the spiritual traditions it came from.  

In this video, I talk about three questions you can ask to address cultural appropriation in your own yoga practice.