I'm back with another nudge I received this weekend. A student said something to me that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.
They told me their first yoga class was harder than their Boot Camp class at the gym.
They had signed up for a Vinyasa-style class and were told it would be gentle on the body, and the teacher said they could go at their own pace.
But once the class started, that didn’t exactly feel true.
Because the reality is you can’t really go at your own pace when your pace is ten steps slower than the teacher’s cues. You either rush to keep up, or you fall behind. And when you fall behind, you get lost.
And instead of feeling grounded or supported, you end up feeling like you’re doing something wrong.
Which is a pretty confusing way to be introduced to something that’s supposed to be about connection.
And it brings up a bigger question…
Was yoga always like this?
Was it always meant to be fast-paced, physically demanding, and something you have to keep up with?
The short answer is - No.
I’ve spoken about this before, but it’s worth continuing the conversation.
What most of us experience today in a Vinyasa or power yoga class is actually a much more modern expression of yoga, not the way it was originally practiced.
The roots of yoga go back thousands of years to texts like the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In that system (often called Raja Yoga), the focus wasn’t on flowing movement at all. It was about meditation, mental discipline, breath control, and stillness. Physical postures (asanas) were minimal and primarily meant to prepare the body to sit comfortably for long periods.
Even later, in traditions like Hatha Yoga, the practice was slow, deliberate, and held. Postures were tools for energy cultivation and internal awareness - not cardio.
The flowy, faster-paced style we often see today has much more recent origins. In the early 20th century, teachers like Tirumalai Krishnamacharya began blending traditional yoga with elements of physical culture and gymnastics. Yes, you read that correctly: gymnastics. (That’s a whole newsletter in itself!) His students, like K. Pattabhi Jois (who developed Ashtanga Yoga) and B. K. S. Iyengar, took things in different directions.
Vinyasa and power yoga evolved from those roots, especially influenced by Ashtanga’s breath-to-movement sequencing. Then when yoga came to the West, it was further shaped by fitness culture, leading to the faster, sweatier, more athletic classes you see today.
So if you’ve ever thought, “Wait, this feels more like a workout than something ancient and spiritual,” you’re spot on. It’s a modern interpretation, a very Western, results-driven, hustle-oriented approach.
That doesn’t make it bad - it just means it’s one branch of a much bigger tree. And that branch even branched out.
If you’re craving something closer to the original intention of yoga, you might explore:
- slower somatic classes
- breathwork (pranayama)
- meditation-based practices
- or even just holding poses longer with awareness instead of flowing quickly
The real throughline across all of yoga, ancient to modern, isn’t speed or strength. It’s awareness.
Raja Yoga is often called the “royal path” of yoga, but not because it’s fancy or elite - it’s because it’s considered a direct path to mastering the mind.
At its core, Raja Yoga is about inner stillness, awareness, and meditation. It’s the system most closely associated with the teachings in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, where yoga is defined as the quieting of the fluctuations of the mind.
So instead of focusing on flowing through poses, Raja Yoga is asking:
Can you sit with yourself and actually be with what’s there?
It’s traditionally broken down into what are called the Eight Limbs of Yoga - a kind of roadmap for living and practicing:
- Yamas – how we relate to the world (ethics)
- Niyamas – how we relate to ourselves (self-discipline)
- Asana – posture (originally just to sit comfortably for meditation)
- Pranayama – breath control
- Pratyahara – withdrawing from external distractions
- Dharana – concentration
- Dhyana – meditation
- Samadhi – deep absorption / unity
Notice how only one of those eight limbs is physical posture - and even that wasn’t meant to be a workout.
So when you compare this to a modern Vinyasa class, you can see the contrast clearly. Raja Yoga isn’t about moving faster, sweating more, or keeping up. It’s about slowing down enough to actually observe your inner world.
In a way, it’s the opposite of that “trying not to get lost in class” feeling I was talking about.
It’s not: Can you keep up?
It’s: Can you be still enough to
notice what’s happening within you?