Can Yoga be used as a treatment?

Note: I'm using the term "treatment" here in the medical sense, to describe something that is done to someone for the purposes of alleviating suffering.

I presented at an autism conference this weekend, offering Yoga for Autistic Folks: Affirming Practices for Neurodivergent Needs. I really wanted to send the message that no person needs to be fixed because we are all whole and complete, and yoga is a practice of remembering that. I knew there would be people coming who wanted to know how yoga might help autistic people, and I struggled with how to communicate that yoga isn’t a treatment for autism that will make outwardly challenging behaviors stop. It also felt important to me that everyone who showed up felt a sense of belonging, whatever their motivation for coming. As I prepared my presentation, I became attached to making sure that my message would be received without alienating anyone in the room. I scripted and re-scripted what I should say, until I lost myself in stress and uncertainty. The “right” words wouldn’t come. I wondered why I felt so strongly that yoga isn’t a treatment, and if I was willing to stand my ground against a challenge to that belief. Eventually, I paused work to practice yoga when I noticed my stress was increasing; I just needed a break.

Following my practice time, I knew I needed to set aside the worry over the messaging and focus on preparing myself to hold the space. Even though I would show up in an anxious and tired human body with a name, pronouns, and identity labels, it wasn’t Yoga for Neurodiversity that I was offering, it was Yoga. My words would only be the right words when they flowed from my heart rather than my head. Each person would receive the message they needed and were ready for as long as I got out of the way.

Because my brain is a stubborn machine, I also took a moment to relabel a slide that said “Benefits of yoga for autistic people” to “What we learn through practice.” It seemed a rational action to shift the focus away from any suggestion of fixing, and reaffirmed my belief that yoga is not a treatment.

Of course, I know that people who practice yoga do experience benefits, including autistic people, but when I look at yoga as something that acts upon me to improve myself in any measurable way, that primes me to be on the lookout for proof that it’s working. That mindset takes away from the whole point of the practice, and then I think it’s valid to ask whether it’s even yoga anymore; yoga becomes a means to an end— something to do, or something that is happening to me rather than within me. And when I fall into this mindset in times when the fruits of my efforts are not evident, I become discouraged and lose faith in the practice. I forget that showing up with the purpose to embody the principles of yoga is the practice, and the technique I use to facilitate connection with true Self isn’t the important part.

“Do not mistake the technique for the Goal.” –Sage Bhaduri Mahasaya to Mukunda, Paramhansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi

Even though disability is a reality for autistic folks (and others), and we may seek relief from suffering through practice, yoga isn’t a commodity to be sold as a fix or any other kind of promise. Therapeutic benefits received by practitioners may be real, and setting individual goals can be a valuable tool for focus and growth, AND I think it’s important to be very careful how we frame these benefits to ensure that we’re representing the true practice and not a product or a cure-all. 

I believe that Yoga asks us to release expectations and be a conduit for love, and allow what comes to be unknowable, as difficult as that is for the mind to accept. When we feel depleted and hopeless, yoga invites us to practice gratitude and surrender. When we get in our own way, yoga teaches us to respond with grace, always taking the action most rooted in lovingkindness and non-harm that brings us back in communion with our wholeness. Connection with true Self (or soul, Spirit, God, the universe, etc.) is always the Goal, and yoga is the process; technique is only a tool. Although we are each on our own path, all we need to do is show up and practice with the intention of embodying yoga’s principles, and keep going no matter what. There can only be one Goal, or the practice becomes something else– breathing and stretching, mindfulness, manifestation, or self-improvement. 

“Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself – without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For yoga is perfect evenness of mind.” –Krishna to Arjuna, The Bhagavad Gita (2.48)

No path is easy, and in my own experience, acting in the interest of collective liberation can be painful work. There are moments of joy and enlightenment that I want to hold onto forever, but they slip away with the wish and are impossible to resurrect through desire. Some relationships with people or habits have necessarily withered, others severed purposely, and some deepened, rooted in love. 

Yoga often compels action as it facilitates outward changes and spiritual transformations that allow me to show up in the world more grounded, loving, and authentically human. The actions I take, however, are often awkward, messy, and even wrong headed at times despite my best intentions, and my authenticity sometimes seems to generate more chaos than it tames. Despite this, I find that my practice draws certain people toward me. Others have noticed changes that result from yoga as desirable improvements, validating that the work is benefiting my wellbeing. The impact of my own spiritual shifts often seem to ripple out to others, and the noticing of this perceived influence tempts me to rely on external validation for happiness. This is when it’s important to stay grounded in remembering that Yoga isn’t something I can enact on another person; it can only be offered in love, freely of itself, with no expectations. It’s not a treatment for me or anyone else to be “bettered” by any human standard.

I believe that Yoga works through us from within us when we open to it, and part of the magic is not knowing what will happen; there is only the present moment. Every moment that we spend looking for proof that it’s working takes us further from the Goal. Viewing yoga as a treatment can only distract us from living fully, and experiencing the joy of knowing true Self. Our job as practitioners or teachers is to show up in lovingkindness and be brave enough to let our experience of Yoga shine from within, and trust that those who are ready and open will see their Wholeness reflected.