'A period of pain sparked a journey to celebrating my culture'

To mark South Asian heritage month, one woman explores the path that led to reconnecting with her roots

After a dramatic life shift, London-based yoga and ayurveda educator and founder of wellness community UNEARTHED, Angie Tiwari, (@tiwariyoga) began a journey of understanding and of finding healing in her culture. Here, to mark South Asian Heritage Month, she details how this new perspective has enriched her life.

My Mum always says things happen in threes and I think she might be right. In 2017 it was a trio destabilising moments – a break-up, moving out of the flat I shared with my ex and leaving a job that had been weighing heavily on me – that created a seismic shift in my life.

I had no idea that these moments of pain, confusion and loss would create space for the most unexpected turn. On reflection, it is wild that it led me to a path of self-inquiry which ultimately drew me towards becoming a professional yoga teacher and educator and to celebrating my heritage, personally and professionally.

I’ve been practising yoga since I was a little girl. That’s normal for someone from my background; the practise is weaved into the very fabric of Indian culture. When I say ‘yoga’ I mean more than asana – the physical postures of flowing from downward dog through to chaturanga – that you might be familiar with. Instead, I'm referring to the full expanse of the spiritual system, from pranayama (breathing techniques) to mantra.

Yogic philosophy shows up in proverbs told by family members and chanting before eating food, at bed time or at the mandir (shrine.) After neglecting the practise in adolescence, I rediscovered asana in my later teenage years. At that stage, maybe like you, I viewed it as primarily a movement-based practice: something to aid flexibility and with which to get stronger.

This all changed in 2017. Those aforementioned difficult moments crashed through my life. In a yoga class at this time, I had an immediate and intensely powerful realisation that there was much more to it all than moving through shapes in time with my breath. I was captivated and desperate to learn more.

A month later I was in India doing my 200 hour teacher training. My aim? To deepen my understanding of what yoga was really about. Through that experience and many that followed, I found a great appreciation for my culture and remembered forgotten rituals that my Grandma and parents had taught me.

Yoga provided me with a space where I could reconnect with myself, hold hands with the spiritual and find perspective. Initially, as I said, I was drawn to the physical benefits, but through training I discovered all of the profound wisdom and spirituality which is a part of the practise. I’m proud to know that all of this stems from my culture and that my ancestors, going back many generations, would have taken part in it.

While teaching over the years, it became evident to me that many aspects of yoga, which hold deep cultural significance for those from the culture, were being exploited and commercialised without any regard for their origins. Take gimmicks like puppy yoga as an example. How can you connect with something spiritual while puppies are running all over you?

It’s also true that there is a darker side of yoga that often goes under-addressed. I don’t see the point, though, of sugar-coating the fact that the systems of oppression which exist in the world are also present in the yoga industry.

Some examples from my life include being told by the founders of a meditation app I was working with to remove Sanskrit from my scripts and being told that chanting (a huge part of my culture and of yoga) was too ‘woo woo’ for a general audience.

Experiences like this initially left me feeling disheartened and conflicted. How do I encourage others to celebrate South Asian culture and the people whose ancestors passed on this practice, I wondered. Do I bother trying to speak up? It felt like few other people were. But then I realised, if I didn’t, I'd be left unable to authentically teach a practice that existed within an industry that I knew excluded so many.

It struck me that I could not remain silent, so I chose continual education and engaged in conversations with South Asian communities, listened to stories, learned about sacred rituals and the ancient knowledge that has been passed down through generations. The more I learned, the more important it became for me to celebrate my heritage, appreciate it, respect it and share it.

In my work in educating through workshops, teaching multiple aspects of yoga on retreats, and online, with my strictly ‘no blame’ approach, I’ve noticed there is sometimes fear surrounding these topics from people in the yoga community. Yet at the same time there is the willingness to learn, and an understanding of the necessity of change.

I began teaching in 2018 in corporate offices, gyms and studios. In 2021, I started hosting retreats and launched my online wellbeing community membership, UNEARTHED, celebrating teachers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds with over 200 classes across many different styles of yoga. The goal of this is to ‘unearth’ the ancient rituals you don’t often see on your mat (from movement to philosophy, mudras, chakras, bandhas, mantras, gunas, pranayama and more.)

My goal is to help you unlearn the negative thought patterns you might not even realise you have about yoga: things like that you need to be bendy to take part or that you’re not ‘good’ at it because you can’t make a particular shape on your mat.

Such ideas are rooted in systems of oppression. The reality is, yoga has been culturally appropriated and that’s why people often think it’s about the poses alone – it makes sense, because, 99% of the time, that is what you see. It’s rare for yogic rituals to be represented in advertising for yoga apparel or in marketing for yoga studios, or to see South Asians teaching you the practise and sharing their culture.

The journey I’ve been on to learn more about and to celebrate my roots has been profound, healing and joyful. If you, like me, love yoga, I’d invite you to do your own learning and digging around the many wonderful elements that make up this expansive, spiritual practise.

If you’re South Asian, too, and want to connect more fully with your culture, why not connect with others from the same background, find festivals to attend together or try making a traditional dish?

I so believe in the prospect of a yoga industry that uplifts and honours the cultures it takes from and in a future where everyone involved in yoga recognises the responsibility of promoting its sacredness and supporting the communities that have kept it alive for centuries.

By embracing diversity, we can create a global yoga community that truly reflects the unity and interconnectedness that lies at the heart of this ancient practice. This celebration of my heritage is now a big part of my life's work – and I couldn't be more grateful.

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