Yoga and Femininity

By Lea Perfetti

Picture Huan Gomes

Over the last few years I have taught yoga in several countries of varying cultures, from Spain to Thailand, Portugal to Norway, Brazil to the U.S.  However, though these countries have vastly different customs and lifestyles, I have seen one common connection they all share - many of my yoga students experience difficulties becoming pregnant.  These women have all been between 30 and 40 years old, all are highly educated with successful careers, and yet they seemingly have no medical reason for not being able to become pregnant. 

In an effort to understand the cause of their difficulty, these women would invariably question the safety of practicing yoga while trying to conceive.  Some became fearful to even use their bodies while ovulating, as if moving too much would make them infertile.  One student went so far as to convince herself that laying in bed during ovulation would help ensure her pregnancy.  All the women were using some sort of natural remedy or practice (acupuncture, herbs, diets, etc.) to become pregnant, and some were in the stages of medical intervention (in-vitro or hormone therapy). 

From my perspective, women today are living with far more stress and less mental peace than ever before.  Women have more things they feel they must ATTAIN - career obligations and objectives, material possessions - to meet the standards of today's society.  Over time this pressure taxes the brain and body to the point where nearly all mental energy is focused on these external demands.  The connection with what is happening inside the body, being in tune with our mental and physical needs, being able to "listen" to what our body is asking from us, is weakened.  When a woman´s internal connection is diminished, her intuition is forgotten, and her connection with her body's rhythm (periods, ovulation, etc.) is lost.  Women who are able to refocus and reduce the strains of the outside world are able to return to their more "feminine" state of bodily attunement.

21st century women spend a large part of their existence, approximately the span between ages 20 and 40, living a typically "masculine" lifestyle: spending most of our energy on our careers, then on investing in our looks and material possessions, with the state of our well-being coming in last.  In addition, the majority of women employ at least one lifestyle component that exponentially affects our bodies: contraceptives (including past, long-term use), medications, exercise regimens, and diets.  Oftentimes increasing our fitness causes us to lose our thighs, our breasts, our curves, the things that make us different from men, and in fact tied greatly to our fertility.  After all of this bodily abuse, we then want babies when we are approaching 40?!?

Our parents' generation had a much simpler timeline: fall in love, get married, have children.  For women, this was simply how life was, and in your spare time you tried to fulfill whatever other material desires you had. Today, we meet our material goals first, then we think about settling down and starting a family.  Delaying this process has enormous repercussions, as women's fertility peaks between ages 22 and 26, and can begin its continuous decline as early as age 27.  On the other hand, marriage and husbands are no longer a prerequisite to having children.  Men as sexual partners are no longer even needed, as women can rely on anonymous sperm donors and bear children through in vitro fertilization.  These changes in male/female culture, while considered scientific progress, have taken power away from both the man and the woman on an individual level.  Men cease to be thought of protectors and providers, while women lose their inherent connection with intuition and their role as the giver of life. Exemplifying the manifestaion of Kali Yuga in society´s current state in its purist form. 

It all comes back to the essentials.  A physical body is a healthy body.  Women should practice some type of hatha (physical) yoga, walk more often, integrate themselves with nature, spend time in quiet, and maintain a healthy diet, organic if possible.  The continuous and regular practice of yoga, more than just a way to calm an anxious or stressed mind, helps regulate hormones and eliminates our body of environmental toxins.  A devout yoga practice also helps us reconnect to our true nature by enabling us to let go of the daily demands and fears our lives place on us.  Yoga helps keep our bodies balanced, spreads energy more homogeneously throughout the body, and allows us to focus on our physical and mental needs and our true desires.

Lea Perfetti was born and raised in a small town in upstate New York.  An athlete at an early age, she began practicing Ashtanga Yoga in 2001, while studying biology and women´s studies at Syracuse University.  Lea first traveled to Mysore, India to study with Pattabhi Jois and R. Sharath in 2003 and has returned continuously to maintain her practice.  Living in Spain since 2004, Lea has taught in various yoga schools throughout the country.  She currently teaches Ashtanga Yoga at CDO in Lisbon, Portugal, but holds workshops in New York, Norway, Spain, and Thailand.  Lea is passionate about organic living and living close to nature, and has dedicated the last few years to studying how the relationship between yoga and maternity influences intuition, health, and one's connection with nature.