Yoga and the Social Body

Once again surfing the internet and I typed in the search engine Social bodies, of course a load of books came up, then i saw "Yoga and the Social Body". I clicked on it and it was an abstract of someone researching the effects of yoga on the social body of a person. 

Yoga is a mind and spirt practice that helps many (including myself) calm and relax their bodies and minds. It is a rejuvenating practice that demands a ton of concentration, while breathing and while focusing on moves. After you leave yoga, you feel like a new you. While feeling sore, you also get this feeling of calmness and serenity that takes over you mind. This abstract states, "The process of bodily knowledge becoming social forces is often neglected in the social sciences. This research is an attempt to begin filling that gap. I investigated the visceral process by which a yogic habitus is developed and lifestyle transformed. This paper explicates the mechanisms by which the emotional, intellectual, and social lives of yoga practitioners have been transformed from the body and how visceral memory traces became resources for agency in social life." After reading this abstract it got me thinking about my reactions and feelings after I do yoga. There is a transformation from the body there is an inner peace that is reached when you practice yoga (especially meditation and Vinyasa). 

I know yoga can be a way of life for some people, and others it is a way to relax and cope with the real world. But what happens during yoga is a mind and body experience, it does transform your social body and you sometimes leave being a different person, and in society there is a more demand for stress relief, ways of coping, and ways of relieving anger. 

It is a stretch that Yoga can be related to the social body, but it is interesting to think that in some way it does affect our social life and the way we live. Yoga and the social body might not go  hand in hand but yoga and the body self sure does.