Hatha Yoga is not a Yoga Style
Acute readers of this blog probably feel like I’ve beaten this horse a couple times with the short post on Clearing things up – What is Hatha Yoga? Then, just in the previous post, I mentioned briefly that Hatha Yoga is not a style. I seem to have taken it upon myself to beat this drum as loudly as possible, to be some sort of Paul Revere for Hatha Yoga (himself also part of a misconception, but I digress).
So, in the interest of developing a common vocabulary for clear communication, let’s say it once more with feelings: Hatha Yoga is not a style. It is the practice of the postures (the asanas) and working with the breath (pranayama), which includes something like, 99% of the current popular yoga styles.
(We could even make the case that some popular modern yoga styles barely touch on pranayama, but that’s another topic for another day.) 
You tell 'em, Bart!
why not tell them what it means…it is actually quite powerful in terms of the whole yin/yang, sun/moon, shiva/shakti, snow white/prince charming ‘thang.
Love the graphic! Yes, the whole Hatha Yoga misconception is one of my pet peeves. I have to wonder how that even started…
Roseanne, that’s the million-dollar question, how does anything get started, especially in yoga…
I agree and wrote about it here: http://yogaspy.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/hatha-yoga-misunderstood/.
I once mentioned my opinion to a teacher (of teachers) at a YMCA; she said that it’s already established lingo and too hard to change.
We can still try.
Yoga Spy
Kathryn,
I’m just trying to set the record straight first, anything more and I think I’ll just make everything even more confusing
Yoga Spy,
Yes, words matter, and they matter a lot. This is hilarious: “Who are the nitwits that started this trend?” We’ll just have to keep beating this horse as dead as it can be, eh? (How’s that for a yogic image…)