Integrating Yoga Cikitsâ in the West: Challenges and Future Directions

With acceptance of Yoga in the West come challenges to Western understanding of what healing is, and how healing happens. The principles of spirituality and holistic living, which form the basis of Yoga, are largely being edited out of Yoga practice in America in an attempt to hold on to cultural perceptions about the nature of healing. This deletion has been a concern for many contemporary Yoga practitioners. This article explores Western cultural values as a backdrop for understanding the tendency to edit "practices" from other "traditions." Suggestions are made for how contemporary Yoga therapists can actively promote the traditional practices of Yoga through the language used to discuss Yoga, scientific studies, and reflection on Western preconceptions about health and healing. Yoga need not be divested of its spiritual heritage to live alongside biomedical approaches to health. By holding multiple theories of health and wellness as correct and useful within their own specific contexts, we will have more to offer those who are suffering with physical or mental illness.