Is Yoga really a 5,000 year old wellness practice? While it may have originated in India, this global phenomenon that is the cornerstone of our self-care routines, was very much shaped by Western culture. The hosts of Alt.Pop.Repeat sit down with wellness coach, Faith Hunter to discuss yoga, healing and intersections in the fitness community before examining the key moments in history when yoga went from oral tradition, to its own subculture – complete with fashion, followers and the myth that yoga should be free.
As Faith Hunter joins the Zoom call with a smile and a calm demeanor. We feel prepared to inundate her with questions about yoga and its significance in our modern lives. Hunter is a bonafide expert in the yoga and wellness community. She boasts an unparalleled body of work that defines her as an International yoga and meditation instructor, a wellness philanthropist, a movement motivator, a healing guide, and Spiritually Fly theorist – which is one of the cornerstones of her yoga empire.
Like yoga’s earliest definition 5,000 years ago was as a spiritual development practice intended to train the body and mind, Hunter’s “Spiritually Fly” approach to yoga is a modern relevant take on that – expressing your true self on the yoga mat. Her heartfelt approach to yoga is far from a coincidence, it stems from what yoga provided her when she needed to turn to a positive outlet while her brother was hospitalized due to complications arising from AIDS.
“I was angry and frustrated but I was also really really sad because I knew he was coming towards the end and so I started practicing yoga. From there it just became. This is an essential part of my life and I had to continue on the path,” says, Hunter, who often leans into this ability to calmly tackle difficult topics throughout the interview as jumping off point. As her brother’s illness set her on the path of yoga, so did the feeling of not belonging in other yoga studios set her on the path to define how she wanted to share yoga with the world.
“I felt they weren’t bringing the truth.” She goes on, “the truth of acceptance and openness that I needed to offer. So I’m just gonna open up my space in the way that I knew I could do that. I knew I could own it, I could teach it in the way I want to teach.”
Come 2020 – the year of pandemics and political upheaval, yoga is having yet another renaissance. And, Hunter, is not only embracing the shift, she’s redefining it within the community. “We have to dig deep inside of who we are individually and understand that everyone deserves this wellness experience,” said Hunter, “I need to make some shifts because I want to make sure that my services are accessible and available to all. It’s not saying that you have to offer everything for free – but it’s to be respectful of BIPOC communities and honour their expertise as healers and guides.”
Barriers to access and intersectionality in fitness are both topics Hunter openly shared her thoughts on – referencing a return to the original teachings of yoga where yoga and mindfulness are both free and how the role of energy exchanges within the culture of ancient wellness worked to sustain the culture. “When you think about the ancient healers,” shares Hunter, “Regardless of what culture they came from – whether it was India, Africa or here in North America with Indigenous communities – you think about these healers and people would come to them. So what they would do is provide food, or provide shelter to support this exchange of energy”
The culture of the energy exchange is still alive and well within modern yoga studios, and it provides an opportunity for access to wellness teachings and classes regardless of affluence. Hunter’s awareness of the space and her devotion to bringing her method of practice to the
community is where we ended the interview, she shared her perspective on the role of being a teacher, “We do have to honor the energy of the human spirit,” Hunter explains, ”The energy of the human soul in each and every one of us wants to elevate and expand. Whatever it is that you’re teaching will help and support people moving forward – then that’s what you share. If you need to label it and tag it in some way, do that! I mean I definitely have my own particular approach to this practice but I don’t call it “spiritually fly yoga.” It’s a Spiritually Fly approach to life, because I’m bringing everything and not separating the physical body from the breath work. it’s all compacted because that’s who we are. We aren’t these little tiny pieces floating around, we’re this amazing human spirit that’s. Allowing the physical form to to shift and move and grow.”
Faith Hunter and the Yoga Syncs to Pop Culture
Faith Hunter is an incredible spirit who has built an empire out of her dedication to wellness and healing others. Her perspective on yoga and the ongoing evolution of it in mainstream, in some ways a what we would call on Alt.Pop.Repeat “a sync” – a pivotal individual or event that helps reframe a counter culture movement as something worthy of mainstream attention.
In regards to Alt.Pop.Repeat’s Episode 9 A Zen Trend: The Yoga Episode (w/ Faith Hunter) we explored the journey of yoga from India 5,000 years ago to the pop culture consciousness today. From the 1800s when British colonizers, obsessed with a movement dubbed “The Physical Culture” helped to transform yoga into the practice recognized today, to the influence of pop culture icons such as The Beatles and their interest in transcendental meditation and the teachings of Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
We consider these “syncs” and they are events that are often separate from historic or political events that can often represent an undercurrent that acts as an introduction into western culture. For example, in 1893, Swami Vivekenanda visits Chicago and delivers a moving speech that includes yogic ideals. While he represents the first introduction of yoga to Westerners on Western soil – it wasn’t until the 1930’s when celebrities like Mae West and Conrad Hilton were extolling the virtues of yoga and Ram Sukul in the popular magazines of the time. The buzz they created helped to introduce the public to yoga at such a broad scale, it had an impact on reversing the Immigration Act of 1924 – a law that banned immigration from the East to the United States. With that law removed, Americans no longer had to travel to India in order to study yoga, but could benefit from more Eastern teachers on American soil. That is a sync. In the context of Alt.Pop.Repeat, we’re looking for the first event that propelled yoga into the mainstream consciousness – like the first celebrity students.
Alt.Pop.Repeat may be in our first season, but we take this format to exploring the roots of our pop culture to every major topic, including punk music, astrology, #MeToo, drag queens, hip hop, MMA and even UFOs and aliens. What made the show about yoga so different was that we really needed to understand the whole spectrum of the story – including how yoga was not formalized until the 1840s. While there were sparks of Western adoption it wasn’t truly popularized into a global wellness movement until the early 2000s when lululemon innovated the yoga pant with the introduction of a gusset inserted into the seam between the legs. This small triangular piece of fabric made activewear functional and fashionable outside of the yoga studio.
However, as we do our research moving through the decades, we simultaneously are confronted with the realities of yoga’s transition into the mainstream – which aren’t always positive. For a period in the 1800s yogis were a fixture of travelling sideshows as contortionists. Known as “contortionist yogis” they exploited Westerners’ attraction to Eastern exoticism in order to make a living – while the general public treated them with little humanity. These occurrences are not reserved to isolated moments in history – as in modern times we’re looking at topics of appropriation, intersectionality and inclusivity on the spread of yoga and evaluating how we do better and what is the next major shift for the movement.
Professionally, we work in marketing and PR, therefore trendspotting is a major part of our jobs. The conversations on Alt.Pop.Repeat really represent a more expanded version of the explorations that we have on a regular basis. The key incentive with our show is sharing this with a broader audience and helping others understand the significance of the culture that we all are consuming regularly.
The best part is that the show is being joined by celebrity guests like DMC from Run DMC, Tommy Chong, Dave Foley, Jeremy Corbell, George Stroumboulopoulos, Bif Naked, Trinity “the Tuck” Taylor and Tommy Chong to explore the topics they are associated with and give a bit of background to the personal side of these very big topics.
We have more great guests lined up and a big season 2 in the works so if anyone is looking for more, they can subscribe Alt.Pop.Repeat anywhere they listen to podcasts, including iTunes, Spotify, etc), tune in to Dash Radio at dashradio.com (web or app) every Friday at 12pm PST/3pm EST & Saturday at 8pm PST/EST and follow us on social media at @altpoprepeat (Twitter/Instagram) & Facebook.com/altpoprepeat.
Until then, click play and listen to our full episode on Yoga featuring Faith Hunter and let us know what you think of it!
