Yoga, mindfulness, and detox diets: religion for those who’d never be caught dead in a church?
“Not everyone who goes to yoga is a spiritual seeker, but there is a lot of it (in yoga). I think yoga can make you start thinking about things, but it’s not really enough to fill that hole.”
Brigid Delaney is a columnist with The Guardian and the author of Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness, in which she recounts her attempt to become clean, lean, and serene through an extreme detox diet, daily yoga practice, and meditation.
But Brigid also grew up Catholic. While she’s long been disenchanted with the church, that religious backstory gives her a unique take on wellness culture. She claims that for many young women, yoga is a form of ‘religion-lite’: a practice that addresses the spiritual yearning of those untethered from organised religion.
Brigid’s account of wellness culture is haunted by religion in other ways as well. At points in Wellmania, she seems to indirectly quote the Bible.
“Maybe I’ve been plagiarising, unintendedly plagiarising the Bible in my work. Or maybe I just listened to enough of it as a kid that it has seeped into some of my thinking.”
—
Brigid Delaney’s Diary
Losing my religion: after the Pell verdict, the conflict for Catholics
It’s not you, Bill, it’s the country: is this election Australia’s Trump or Brexit moment?
Buy Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness
I Don’t Judge Anyone (Except Christians)
REBROADCAST: Music and the Mind
Not an Inspiration
REBROADCAST: Good Grief
The Good Book?
REBROADCAST: Exceptional
Free Like A Bird
The Permanent Resident
REBROADCAST: Identity Complex
A White Man’s World
No Angel
How Grand to Be A Toucan
The Ring of Truth
An Empty Plate
The Missing Theology of Art
Not in Polite Company
The Cost of Sacrifice
A History of Non-violence
A Public Book
Son of a Communist
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Tangent on Veritas Catholic Network
Life After Ministry
Devoted To Prayer
The Bible Recap
BardsFM