A few months ago there was an article in The New York Times that apparently caused a ruckus (click the image to the left to read The Guardian‘s coverage of that aftermath) in the Western yoga community.  Maybe it is because I am not a member of the Western yoga community that, when I read the article originally I thought:   Brilliant.  Eastern tradition meets Western science.  Evolution.  Improvement.

Today I had a reminder about that article, and my response to it, while listening to this podcast.  The journalist (a Pulitzer-toting science writer who also has practiced yoga for more than 40 years and recently published The Science Of Yoga) writing that article says something about half way through that rings true:

[Groups] are using props to ease the poses. They use blankets with the shoulder stand to decrease the angle, so your neck isn’t flexed at 90 degrees. … Dozens of groups are out there refining poses, doing smart things. … Most people think of yoga as thousands of years old and perfect. Well, it’s changing a lot — and some of that stuff is making the poses gentler and in some ways better for you.

The video below is an interview with the journalist about the article, the related book, and the reaction in the Western yoga community.

At 6:40 into the interview the author cites an example of how science has identified one of the specific medical benefits of yoga neurologically in regulating depression.  Just before and after that he cites some of the many yoga groups in the West who have applauded both the research and his dissemination of it. Those observations make it seem the perfect time to celebrate another healthy bridge between East and West: