These days, people begin a yoga practice for all sorts of reasons—stress reduction, weight loss, sleep restoration, pain management, injury rehabilitation, cross-training, personal growth, and more. Yoga classes have even become the habitat du jour for singles seeking flexy, sexy dates and mates. However, despite its growing popularity as a form of fitness, yoga is not merely an exercise program reserved for skinny-minny contortionists and modern-day members of the cult of the "body beautiful." Nor is it an enlightenment fast-track for bendy, trendy spiritual seekers. Yoga is not about being able to touch one’s nose to one’s knees, sculpting a beautiful body, or accumulating experiences of bliss, although all are common effects of practice. 

Rather, yoga is about coming into harmony with ourselves, each other, and our world. Yoga is...