Cultural Appropriation vs. Appreciation: A Conversation Worth Having
In the age of global connection, the lines between cultural appreciation and appropriation can sometimes feel blurry. As practitioners, space holders, facilitators, and seekers on a path of healing, it’s essential that we understand these distinctions—not only for ethical alignment, but to deepen our own integrity, humility, and impact.
Let’s start by getting clear on what we’re actually talking about.
What Is Cultural Appropriation?
Cultural appropriation happens when elements of a marginalized culture are taken out of context by someone from a more dominant culture—often without permission, understanding, or respect. These elements could include clothing, symbols, rituals, language, hairstyles, or spiritual practices.
The issue isn’t cross-cultural exchange. Humans have always learned from one another. The problem is when there’s a power imbalance, when sacred practices become trendy commodities, and when people profit or gain status by using parts of a culture that the originators have been punished or excluded for.
Think of it like borrowing someone’s ancestral heirloom, wearing it to a party, and never acknowledging who it belongs to—or why it matters.
What Is Cultural Appreciation?
Cultural appreciation is rooted in respect, understanding, and relationship. It means honoring a culture’s origins, giving credit where it’s due, and taking the time to learn deeply—not just aesthetically.
Appreciation often looks like:
Studying with lineage holders or cultural elders
Being invited into a tradition, rather than taking it
Using practices or symbols with reverence and context
Supporting and amplifying voices from that culture
Appreciation involves humility. It’s not about being perfect, but about being aware.
Real-World Examples
🧘♀️ Yoga
Yoga is a deeply spiritual tradition with roots in ancient India. When it’s stripped of its philosophy, reduced to a fitness trend, or sold without acknowledging its cultural origins, it becomes appropriated.
Appreciating yoga means studying its roots, learning its philosophy, and giving credit to the lineages that carried it through colonization and commercialization.
🌿 Smudging with Sage
White sage is sacred in many Indigenous traditions and often used in ceremonial smudging. When non-Indigenous people sell white sage bundles or casually burn it without understanding the practice, it can be harmful—especially when the plant is overharvested and the culture it comes from is still fighting for rights and recognition.
Appreciation would look like learning from Indigenous teachers (with permission), sourcing sustainably, or using culturally neutral alternatives like rosemary or palo santo (if also harvested ethically and with permission).
🎨 Symbols, Clothing & Tattoos
Wearing a bindi, a headdress, or spiritual tattoos from cultures you don’t belong to may seem beautiful or expressive. But ask: what does this mean to the people it belongs to? Is it yours to wear?
Yoga in India: From Persecution to Popularity
What many don’t know is that during British colonial rule in India (1858–1947), Indians were often ridiculed, punished, or outright banned from practicing their spiritual traditions, including yoga.
Yogis were labeled “primitive” or “superstitious” by colonial powers.
Temples were desecrated. Lineages went underground.
Knowledge that had been orally transmitted for generations was dismissed as illegitimate.
Some yogis were criminalized, while others were forced to westernize their teachings just to survive.
Meanwhile, in the 20th century, as Indian teachers like Swami Vivekananda, Krishnamacharya, B.K.S. Iyengar, and Pattabhi Jois began introducing yoga to the West, it was met with fascination—but also co-optation.
Over time, yoga studios began popping up across North America and Europe, led primarily by white teachers, using Sanskrit words without understanding their meaning, branding themselves as "gurus," and building profitable businesses—while many Indian teachers struggled for recognition.
What Cultural Appropriation of Yoga Looks Like
Using Sanskrit terms like “namaste” or “chakra” without understanding their roots
Wearing bindis or mala beads as fashion accessories
Marketing yoga as a “detox” or weight loss tool without honoring its spiritual dimension
Claiming to teach “Tantra” or “Kundalini” with no initiation, training, or connection to lineage
Cherry-picking practices while ignoring or erasing the culture they come from
Appropriation happens when these practices are divorced from context, lineage, or reverence—and especially when those benefiting from it are not from the culture it originates in.
Yoga Around the World: Diverse Interpretations, Shared Roots
Yoga has evolved in many ways across cultures:
In India, you’ll find a wide range: from ashram-based Vedantic study, to temple-based Bhakti traditions, to street-corner yogis teaching pranayama. It's often deeply interwoven with daily life, ritual, and devotion.
In Tibet, yoga merged with Tantric Buddhism (like Tummo or Dream Yoga).
In Africa and the diaspora, yoga has become a tool for resistance and healing—reclaiming ancestral wisdom through embodied practice.
In Latin America, yoga is often fused with Indigenous earth-honoring practices.
Each expression has its own depth—but when these adaptations honor the root, they can be a form of cultural appreciation. When they erase or exploit the root, they veer into appropriation.
Appreciation Means Honoring the Lineage
Here’s how to practice or teach yoga with integrity:
✅ Know where your practice comes from. Learn the history. Know the names of the teachers who shaped the system you're working with.
✅ Center the philosophy. Don’t teach asana without at least mentioning the deeper purpose of yoga.
✅ Credit your teachers. If you’re trained in a particular lineage, say so. If you draw from a tradition, name it.
✅ Give back. Support Indian or South Asian teachers and organizations preserving yogic wisdom.
✅ Be humble. Recognize your position in the system. Ask yourself: Am I benefiting from something that others were persecuted for?
Why It Matters in Wellness & Spiritual Work
In healing spaces, we often draw from global wisdom—yoga, plant medicine, sound healing, breathwork, martial arts, tantra, somatics. That diversity can be beautiful. But without discernment, we risk reenacting colonial patterns—extracting, profiting, and centering ourselves while silencing the cultures we borrow from.
As facilitators, it’s our responsibility to hold this awareness.
Because cultural trauma lives in the body.
Because spiritual practices are not trends.
Because healing means more when it’s rooted in truth.
How to Navigate It With Integrity
Here are a few reflection points:
✨ Ask yourself: Do I know where this practice comes from? Who taught me? Who benefits?
✨ Build relationships: Learn from and credit cultural teachers, especially those who are part of the lineage.
✨ Use your voice: Name the traditions you’ve been influenced by. Don't claim what isn’t yours.
✨ Support the source: Donate, uplift, or collaborate with practitioners from the cultures you honor.
✨ Stay open: You might get it wrong—and that’s okay. What matters is that you stay curious, humble, and willing to grow.
This isn’t about guilt or gatekeeping.
It’s about responsibility, reverence, and reciprocity.
True appreciation asks us to slow down, go deeper, and honor the roots before we harvest the fruit.
Not everyone who completes a yoga teacher training is meant to teach.
And not everyone who has a spiritual awakening is meant to guide others through theirs.
Yoga is a sacred science.
It demands discipline, humility, and a lifelong commitment to learning — not performance.
It’s not a branding opportunity.
It’s not a trend to be twisted into something catchy for profit.
To do so is to dishonor the lineage — and frankly, it’s embarrassing.
To walk the path of yoga is to walk the path of truth.
It means integrity. Accountability. Devotion.
May we all become better listeners, more conscious teachers, and more respectful stewards of the sacred.
