Yoga & Politics – Holding the Essence of Yoga Teacher Training | Online 2025

Welcome to your Yoga & Politics – Holding the Essence of Yoga Teacher Training! We created this live online yoga teacher training to better support you in an interactive format with discussions along the way. You can either attend the weekly sessions live or watch the recordings to stay on top of the information as it progresses – you will have unlimited access to the live session recordings and resources.

This training has six, 2hr live sessions running every other week. Each session will begin with about an hour of lecture, followed by an interactive discussion to prompt deeper inquiry.

Please note that there are no actual “lessons/topics” built into the course. The videos are all on the home portal – so because there aren’t any lessons/topics to mark as complete, the course will continue to say 0% complete until you complete the exam. Once you pass the exam it will say 100% complete.

This yoga teacher training will count as 12 ‘in-person/contact’ hours towards your 500-hour/1000-hour Yoga Medicine certification. Directly following the last live session of the yoga teacher training you will be invited to take an optional online exam – you must pass the exam within 45 days to receive your certificate of completion and training hours. These online hours will also be recognized as 12 continuing education hours (CEUs) by Yoga Alliance.

LIVE Sessions Schedule (8-10am PST | 9-11am MST | 11am – 1pm EST):

• Tuesday, February 18th: Session 1: Systems of Separation
• Tuesday, March 4th: Session 2: The Intersection of Yoga and Religion
• Tuesday, March 18th: Session 3: Colonization and Yoga
• Tuesday, April 1st: Session 4: Yoga & Visual Arts
• Tuesday, April 15th: Session 5: Cultural Appropriation and Appreciation and Hindu Nationalism
• Tuesday, April 29th: Session 6: What Does Yoga’s Political Future Look Like

Join the scheduled Live Session

LIVE Session Recordings

You can watch the live session recordings using the video player below – each week the new recording will be added to the playlist. Just use the white dropdown arrow in the upper left-hand corner of the video player to toggle between each sessions’ recording. Within this video player, you can go fullscreen, change the speed, add closed captioning, and more.

Yoga & Politics Final Exam – Submissions Due by June 13th

The Yoga & Politics Training was meant to discuss the knowledge of yoga history and politics and question source materials, values and beliefs. So due to the nature of this training’s structure, there are no right or wrong answers to a lot of the discussions we have had throughout this training. Therefore, the format of this final exam is an open-ended written assessment where you will answer 1 of 3 essay questions (whichever one speaks to you the most) so we can see that you can explain, through a process of critical thinking, how you are forming your answer and why you are making your decision. In 700-1000 words (meaning one-worded/sentence answers will not be accepted), you will submit your answers via the associated discussion board to your question (see below) no later than June 13th. Then your lead teacher, Firdose Moonda, will read and comment on your submissions to acknowledge your engagement with the material. Upon approval of your submission, you will have successfully passed and will receive your certificate and 12hrs of completion for the Yoga & Politics – Holding the Essence of Yoga Teacher Training.

Completion Policy: You will have 45 days after the last live session becomes available on April 29th to pass the exam. Therefore, the optional essay exam must be completed by June 13th to receive your hours and certificate of completion. If you do not complete your essay exam by June 13th, the essay discussion boards will be removed and you will no longer be able to submit your answers. Therefore, you will not be able to receive your certificate and hours of completion for this training. Nonetheless, you will have unlimited access to the live session recordings and resources (even if you don’t complete the exam).

Essay Question #1: Yoga is often described as being for everybody in a statement of inclusion. How do you respond to this claim, with examples, and is there anything you would like to see or do to make that statement fit your reality?

Essay Question #2: We’re often told that asana is only a small part of a full yoga practice, yet it is usually the part we engage with the most. How did it develop and what role has it played in the politics of both Indian and Western bodies?

Essay Question #3: Was yoga taken TO the west or taken BY the west and how would you explain the adaptations made to it as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean? How does this reconcile with our understanding of cultural appropriation versus cultural intermingling?

Links, Resources & Chat Boards:

• Yoga & Politics TT Slides
• Isabel Wilkerson’s World-Historical Theory of Race and Caste
• ‘Om-Washing’: Why Modi’s Yoga Day Pose is Deceptive

Questions

If you have any content questions, email them to Katie at info@yogamedicine.com.