Yoga Isn’t For Women (But it Can Be)
What? Yoga isn’t for women!? I know it sounds crazy and the yogi purists may hate me for saying this – but, put down your pitchforks! In this episode I share with you:
The ancient lineage of yoga
How and who it was really developed for
The energy of traditional yoga
Why I created a variation to serve women
The way we can make yoga more feminine in energy
Why I believe yoga needs a shake up
How I developed Sensual Yoga™️
The difference between Sensual Yoga™️ and Yin Yoga
Tune in to learn more, and perhaps be inspired to inject some feminine energy into your practice!
This podcast is for YOU, so if you ever have any questions you’d like me to answer on the show, or topics you’d like me to cover – reach out to me on email here or over on instagram @eleanorhadley
Links & Resources
If you’d like to tap in to your 5 senses to cultivate a deeper sense of self-love – check out my free 5-day challenge, Journey to Self-Love at eleanorhadley.com/journey
Get out of your head and into your body by joining my signature online course in The Art of Sensual Movement. Use the code PODCAST for 15%off – https://www.eleanorhadley.com/tasm
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Sensuality Academy Podcast!
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Episode Transcript
Welcome to episode five of The Sensuality Academy podcast, and hello from beautiful Brazil where I’m recording this for you all today! Now, I want to preface this episode by saying that if you’re a yogi purist and the title of the episode made you mad … take a deep breath, put down the pitchfork. I love yoga, I promise you — I absolutely adore it, and yoga has been a really integral part of my practice, of my life and my spiritual journey. So this episode is not about bad-mouthing yoga; this episode is simply to share a bit more about the origins of yoga, and how we can make this practice more aligned for those of us who want to honour our feminine energy.
Now, in this episode, I’m going to be speaking in the binary, regarding male and female bodies … but I’ll also be referring to feminine energy. In episode 4, I spoke all about the differences between masculine and feminine energy. So if you want a bit of a refresher just head back and listen to that one.
But the basic concept is that energy is NOT gendered. I know this gets confusing because I say masculine and feminine, but it’s not gendered. I use this to describe the energy, but it doesn’t mean that the masculine energy exists purely in the body of someone who identifies as male, and the same goes for feminine energy.
As I always say, there are different layers — sex, gender, and energy are all totally different concepts and can exist within any person in any mix.
So, back to yoga and why it is not for women. (I know that makes you mad to hear.)
This idea of yoga not being for women, it came to me quite intuitively. When I first began taking my regular yoga classes, I didn’t discover this concept but my feminine energy couldn’t really feel aligned with yoga the way that I was taking classes, especially in the west. My feminine energy could intuitively sense that this practice was not made with the feminine in mind — especially the feminine body, but definitely the feminine energy.
So let’s get things straight.
Yoga is an ancient tradition and many of the purists out there believe that the sacred texts and the teachings of yoga should really really be honoured and adhered to. I absolutely believe that they should be honoured, but I personally believe that it’s a little bit too restrictive sometimes, if we have to stick to the way things have always been done. We have evolved in many many ways since yoga was developed, and we live in a vastly different world. So I believe that it’s not just understandable, but it’s also really necessary for the actual movement, the asana practice of yoga, to evolve with us.
So yoga, as most of us know it in the west (the movement practice, the asana, the postures) … this practice was designed by men and for male bodies. I’ll say that again — yoga was designed BY men, FOR male bodies.
The hatha yoga manuals, back in the day, were composed by men (for men) in India between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries — that’s a hell of a long time ago! And of course, back then, I cannot imagine how many yogis, even though yogis are well-intentioned on their spiritual journey to enlightenment … I can’t imagine that they had much of a concern for making yoga accessible to women and their bodies. Think of it, in the eleventh to the fifteenth century. I mean, even these days it’s hard-going sometimes being a woman and being considered for our differences, and celebrated for those.
So I could really really sense this when I started my regular practice of yoga — and many of my students have actually told me that they feel the same way, like yoga doesn’t always feel quite intuitive to them, that sometimes there’s too much push, there’s too much force behind it. And yes, having studied yoga myself, I know that one of the main principles of yoga is that sweet spot, finding that space between sthira and sukha — the ability to be strong and stable, but with a sense of ease and comfort in your postures. But, with this in mind, the postures still themselves were not created with the energy and the physicality of a woman’s body in mind.
So first, physically — traditional yoga is often very very structured, especially when you look at something like ashtanga yoga where it’s a sequence and it’s quite linear. The shapes are very linear, they’re very rigid, they’re very masculine in energy. Just think of like a good ol’ Warrior 2: How many times have you had a yoga teacher come around and ever so slightly adjust your body (you know, maybe move your toe slightly to the left, maybe move your arm slightly up and to the right)? There’s a really big focus on perfection in the shape, moreso of the full expression, reaching that full expression of the shape … which is beautiful, and it’s nice to be able to kinda strive for that and to be very mindful as you’re doing these poses. And I don’t say that yoga is “forceful”, per se; it’s more that it does have a right way and a wrong way.
And so now if we come all the way back to this time, with the western popularisation of yoga, we’re seeing that we ARE seeking this kind of perfection of the most instagrammable poses, trying to get this looking picture perfect. Of course, the west has taken a lot of the spirituality out of yoga … a lot of studios definitely still keep it in there, but of course the movement aspect of yoga is only one part. It’s a spiritual practice, and a yogic philosophy, but now with the western popularisation of yoga it’s taken on a different element. I could get really deep into the 8 limbs of yoga, and talking about how yoga is not just the actual poses (that’s just simply one of the 8 limbs), but that’s a whole other topic altogether.
So let’s look at the energy of traditional yoga. Like I said, it’s often very structured — it’s very linear and rigid in shape, but also in energy. If we think of the masculine energy like I spoke in episode 4, the masculine energy is solar in nature — think of the sun coming up, and then going down. Whereas the energy of the feminine, she’s lunar, like the moon. So just like the moon, women’s bodies wax and wane throughout the month in line with our menstrual cycle. Women are so much more in-depth, there’s more that is happening energetically in our bodies. Certain times we are more energetic and social, other times we are more introspective and lower in energy. These cycles — these feminine, intuitive, natural cycles — aren’t often respected by traditional yogic practices. So with traditional yoga it is often “this is how it’s done, this is how you do it” and the whole class is quite structured, whereas throughout the month women’s energy changes so vastly, and I’ll talk a lot more in future episodes about the power of menstrual cycles and really honouring them, and also using different movement practices at different phases of your cycle to really honour them. This is actually something that comes up for me when I see traditional yoga studios, especially in the west doing 30-day challenges and encouraging you to come and do yoga practice every single day for 30 days (and more). While I think that’s beautiful to do a practice every day and to commit yourself, consider how masculine that idea is, that notion of having to do something every single day and show up with the same energy every single day. And for women in particular, but for everybody, we don’t have the same amounts of energy day-by-day and our bodies need different nourishment at different times.
As Uma Dinsmore Tuli, author of Yoni Shakti, says, “These yoga lineages can disempower individuals by valuing the teachings of the ‘lineage’ way higher than any insights from self-discovery.” I think that’s a really beautiful quote because — regardless of how you identify in sex, gender, or energy — we all know our bodies, we have the ability to tap into our bodies and understand what we need energetically day-by-day. So if we’re doing a practice — whether it be traditional yoga, whether it be a spin class, whether it be boxing, whether it just be going for a run — we are almost disrespecting our own bodies if we’re not listening and tuning in to how the energy is differing each day.
Our bodies know what they need.
So that’s a little bit about why yoga is not for women, and I’d just like to add a caveat that it CAN be. There are different ways that you can make your practice feel more feminine, more fluid, and that is about really getting more embodied, and it’s also about listening to your energy depending on the time of the month, where your energy’s at (if you’re familiar with tracking your cycle — again, I’ll cover this in more detail in another episode).
I really wanted to focus on this episode about the reasons why I say that yoga isn’t for women, and the reason that I developed Sensual Yoga. I’m going to be explaining in more depth about my journey to founding my signature practice of Sensual Yoga in a future episode (so look out for that), but essentially Sensual Yoga is a feminine take on yoga; instead of that rigid/linear/masculine structure, I infused yoga with exotic sensual movement. So think rounded/circular shapes, fluid/flowy movements. As I do it I’m sort of moving my hands as though through honey or through water. It’s a really beautiful style of movement that allows for full expression. I designed it to encourage you to really drop deep into your innate femininity and sensuality, and really connect with your body. (Again, this is regardless of how you identify. Yes, I predominantly teach Sensual Yoga to women, but I have taught it to men as well, and it’s just as potent, it’s just as powerful.) Sensual Yoga is not about perfection or mastery, but rather embodiment and expression.
Every time I explain what Sensual Yoga is to someone — especially when I explain it to a woman — or when I take a newbie through a Sensual Yoga class for the first time, I tend to hear the same thing: So many women tell me that traditional yoga never felt quite right for them. Maybe they tried it and they didn’t like it but couldn’t place why. Or perhaps they’re avid yogis, but still feel as though they’re operating in their masculine energy most of the time.
When I share that yoga was never actually originally designed for women, it resonates so so deeply. So many of my students tend to look at me with wide eyes and they say, “Oh! That’s why it’s never felt right to me! I could never put my finger on it!”
And maybe you feel the same way.
Remember, I’m not on a crusade against yoga — far from it! I practice traditional yoga multiple times a week, and I love it. But, as I spoke about in the last episode, episode 4, I believe that we all really really need to embrace and explore both the energy of the masculine AND the feminine. So just because I teach mainly about femininity doesn’t mean that I think the masculine isn’t important. It’s just that, in a world where most of us are operating from our masculine energy most of the time … men and women alike, regardless of how you identify you’ve gotta admit our world is incredibly masculine. We’re very structured, we’re very linear, we’re very rigid, there’s lots of rules, there’s not as much invitation or acceptance of the feminine energy, of the softness, of the vulnerability, of the flow, of the receptivity. We’re not as invested in community as we really could be. And that is why when we’re given an opportunity to drop into our feminine, it is so so needed. It’s pure magic. It’s so important. I think that the more we allow ourselves to connect to with our femininity, regardless of how we identify, the world’s gonna change. Things are going to be so so much more communal, more beautiful, more connected if we allow ourselves to drop into that.
I also just want to add a bit of a caveat here, while I’m talking about traditional yoga. I want to just chat about Yin yoga, because I know a lot of you might have questions about that and say, “Oh no, but I thought Yin was feminine”. So yes, yin refers to feminine energy and yang refers to the masculine energy. (We’re all familiar with that beautiful image of the yin-yang.) So Yin yoga is often thought of as a more feminine yoga, and it’s actually what a lot of people assume I’m talking about when I mention the yoga I created is feminine in nature. They’re like, “Oh, so it’s like Yin” … no, it’s not, not even slightly. Those of you who have done a Sensual Yoga class with me, you know it ain’t like Yin. But yin is beautiful, and the idea of yin is about surrender, so it really differs greatly from hatha, ashtanga or vinyasa yoga in that it’s about holding these stretches for 3 to 5 minutes at a time and allowing your fascia to release, as opposed to pushing in a stretch. Even when I say stretch, it doesn’t quite describe it — it’s more about relaxing in gentle poses, and allowing yourself to release. It’s beautiful, and yes, it really honours one aspect of the energy of the feminine, and that is the aspect of surrender, something that we could all do to practice more of — especially being here in Brazil. My friend was saying being in Brazil is the ultimate art of surrender because, you know, when you’re traveling sometimes, things don’t always go to plan and you just have to surrender. Whatever will be, will be. “Brazil time”, they say.
But, anyway, just like everything, the feminine is multifaceted. So we have that aspect of the feminine that is the energy of surrender … but also, if we think of the feminine energy (the yin energy, the flow energy), she’s wild, she’s sexy, she’s open, she’s soft, she’s vulnerable, receptive, magic. And I believe that there’s still so so much space for us to honour and embrace the wild, the sensual side of the feminine. That’s where Sensual Yoga comes in. (And again, I’ll share way more in depth about what Sensual Yoga is all about and how I came to create it in an episode coming up soon).
In the meantime, if you’re keen to learn more about the foundations of Sensual Yoga, and you’d like to practice this movement, you’re welcome to join my online course, The Art of Sensual Movement, and you can enrol for that at eleanorhadley.com — just check out the offerings and the course there.
I hope that this episode has provided you with a bit of insight about the origins of yoga, and maybe inspired you to tap into your feminine energy a little bit more. I think we could all do with more of it — I mean, I’m well-into my feminine (we know this!). But I believe that we could all use a lot more feminine energy in our lives.
So if this episode intrigued you, I’d love you to take a screenshot, share to your socials, tag me, send it to your friends — it would be amazing! Thank you so much for listening. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments, it would be wonderful — I love chatting all about femininity, sensuality.
And, until next time, stay sensual!
