Decolonizing Yoga in Academia: Narratives of Young Adults using Yoga to Manage Stress

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dc.contributor.advisorHaig-Brown, E. Celia
dc.creatorSharma, Ragini Singh
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-25T13:56:06Z
dc.date.available2016-11-25T13:56:06Z
dc.date.copyright2016-05-03
dc.date.issued2016-11-25
dc.date.updated2016-11-25T13:56:06Z
dc.degree.disciplineEducation
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis inquiry explores the experiences of thirteen Canadian yoga-exemplars, ages 25-40, who use traditional Yoga knowledge and practices to handle lifes stresses and strains. The young adults describe Yoga as a holistic and spiritual practice as a way of life, a philosophy, and not merely a physical exercise. Their stories about how they cope with the challenges of life such as school, relationships or existential angst, demonstrate how Yoga has helped them effectively cope with stress. Their discussion of Yoga is important because of concerns that unmanaged stress leads to negative impacts, such as anxiety, depression and drug and alcohol abuse. Researchers have concluded that, due to the heterogeneity of Yoga, it is difficult to compare Yoga programs to know their quality or content. Also, these programs are usually limited to practice of asanas, or physical postures, along with some mindfulness. Yet, as the Patanjali Yoga Sutras explain, Yoga teaches the complete psychology of the mind and provides a holistic, spirituality-based, embodied and experiential approach to wellness and increased-self-awareness. Using the Art of Living programs as a case study, this inquiry provides an example of a program that teaches all eight limbs of Yoga which is a Yoga-based theoretical framework researchers can use to study programs that are based on Yoga. Purva paksh, or critical review, of western scholarship on Yoga has led Indigenous scholar-practitioners to conclude that Yoga has been, and continues to be, studied through colonial lenses. This study proposes and demonstrates how Yoga may be better understood and analysed using Yogas own theories and Sanskrit terminology. This study uses decolonizing methodologies to theorize Yoga as indigenous knowledge, similar to other indigenous knowledges of the world which are based on the oral tradition. Indigenous scholars have asserted that the authority to speak for or teach the knowledge belongs to its own knowledge keepers and scholars, and not to outsiders. The study further decolonizes western studies on Yoga to show that the significant contributions made by Yoga to western psychology, mind sciences, and philosophy remain mostly unacknowledged. A review of the many threats faced by Yoga from western Indology provides the backdrop to the yoga-exemplars' narratives.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/32661
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectSouth Asian studies
dc.subject.keywordsYoga
dc.subject.keywordsStress
dc.subject.keywordsDecolonizing Yoga
dc.subject.keywordsArt of Living
dc.subject.keywordsSudarshan Kriya
dc.subject.keywordsYES! Plus
dc.subject.keywordsYES!
dc.subject.keywordsCanada
dc.subject.keywordsRajiv Malhotra
dc.subject.keywordsIndigenous knowledge
dc.subject.keywordsDecolonizing methodologies
dc.subject.keywordsYoung adults
dc.subject.keywordsCollege students
dc.subject.keywordsSri Sri Ravi Shankar
dc.subject.keywordsNarratives
dc.subject.keywordsCase study
dc.subject.keywordsPatanjali Yoga Sutras
dc.subject.keywordsIndology
dc.subject.keywordsFour Pillars of Knowledge
dc.subject.keywordsSelf-awareness
dc.subject.keywordsExperiential learning
dc.subject.keywordsPurva paksh
dc.subject.keywordsMeditation
dc.subject.keywordsDigestion
dc.subject.keywordsU-turn theory
dc.subject.keywordsWord warrior
dc.subject.keywordsNeo-Hinduism
dc.subject.keywordsTransnational Yoga
dc.subject.keywordsViveka
dc.subject.keywordsVairagya
dc.subject.keywordsPranayama
dc.subject.keywordsEight Limbs of Yoga
dc.subject.keywordsIndigenous knowledges
dc.subject.keywordsSouth Asian Studies
dc.subject.keywordsCultural appropriation
dc.subject.keywordsCultural denigration
dc.subject.keywordsDecolonizing
dc.subject.keywordsReversing the gaze
dc.subject.keywordsNeo-Hinduism
dc.subject.keywordsOrientalism
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican Orientalism
dc.subject.keywordsMindfulness
dc.subject.keywordsMind sciences
dc.subject.keywordsConsciousness studies
dc.subject.keywordsOceanic-feeling
dc.subject.keywordsFreud
dc.subject.keywordsHealing breath
dc.subject.keywordsYogic breathing
dc.subject.keywordsAyurveda
dc.subject.keywordsChristian Yoga
dc.subject.keywordsTraditional Yoga
dc.subject.keywordsHolistic education
dc.subject.keywordsYoga in schools
dc.titleDecolonizing Yoga in Academia: Narratives of Young Adults using Yoga to Manage Stress
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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