Confused about Yoga

[Lynn5575]

I accepted Jesus is my Lord and Saviour back in 1998 and was baptized. As the years passed I never found a church that I felt comfortable at. So I prayed at home, etc. I met this lady one day who invited me to her yoga class and I went as I was looking for friends and needed exercise, thought it would be fun, honestly didn’t think much about it.

As the classes continued I realized that some of these people have beliefs that I don’t share and at first I didn’t understand even what they believed in. There is a lot of mediation in the class and talk of Chakras. Some red flags rose in me but I pushed them aside. The meditations made me feel joy and acceptance. But there was a voice in my head telling me Is this what Jesus would want you to do? Am I going against Jesus? I think that over the years I had strayed from God. But suddenly its like my blinders have come off and I think I need to leave the class.

If I was just doing Yoga as an exercise I think it would be fine but all the meditations and vibrations etc isn’t sitting well with me. Last class when they did that I said the Lords prayer in my head and spoke to Jesus.

I need to find a class that doesn’t do this right? Sigh. I feel sad about losing friends but its not worth my relationship with Christ.
Am I overreacting?

 

[Hidden In Him]

If I was just doing Yoga as an exercise I think it would be fine but all the meditations and vibrations etc isn’t sitting well with me. Last class when they did that I said the Lords prayer in my head and spoke to Jesus.

I need to find a class that doesn’t do this right? Sigh. I feel sad about losing friends but its not worth my relationship with Christ.

That's correct, and welcome to Christian Forums.

If it were just the physical act of stretching and relaxation of the body that would be one thing, but Hindu religious beliefs are intrinsically woven into the practice. Yoga is in effect a form of prayer, only it is prayer devoted to the Hindu God Shiva, whom yogis devote their practice to. Natarajasana, or the dance pose, is literally performing a physical representation of the Hindu god.

For Christians, Shiva should rightly be considered a demonic spirit, not God, and certainly not the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, the mantras practiced in yoga are specifically intended to unite people with the universal consciousness, which is in effect opening them up to demonic infiltration because ANY spirit can step in to fill that void if they keep consciously asking for one to fill it, and there are a lot of EVIL spirits out there who will gladly pose as something holy in order to deceive.

One blogger compared it to conjuring spirits just like through a Ouija board, and caught all kinds of hell for it, but that's because he was correct and the enemy doesn't like it when people expose the kinds of strategies he likes to use to deceive and seduce unsuspecting people.

Losing friends isn't a great experience to have to go through, so I understand. But neither is losing one's faith and ultimately one's soul.

You might like reading a full article by that blogger. Despite his critics, the article is actually quite sound from a genuinely Christian perspective:

WALSH: Yoga Is A Pagan Ritual. Maybe Christians Should Find A Different Workout Routine.

The cool kids on Twitter use the term “ratioed” to describe an event where someone sends a controversial tweet that garners far more replies than it does likes. According to Twitter logic, this is supposed to be an indication that you were wrong about whatever you said. If so many people are...

www.dailywire.com

Blessings in Christ, and welcome once again.

 

[citrus]

Change. Just do the sretches at home or try piliates. Hindu is disturbing. True sect hindus practice cannibalism and worship their menstrual cycle to a goddess. They do animal sacrifice too. It's disgusting
I think cannibalism is under the umbrella of the unforgivable sin.

 

[port4]

I accepted Jesus is my Lord and Saviour back in 1998 and was baptized. As the years passed I never found a church that I felt comfortable at. So I prayed at home, etc. I met this lady one day who invited me to her yoga class and I went as I was looking for friends and needed exercise, thought it would be fun, honestly didn’t think much about it.

As the classes continued I realized that some of these people have beliefs that I don’t share and at first I didn’t understand even what they believed in. There is a lot of mediation in the class and talk of Chakras. Some red flags rose in me but I pushed them aside. The meditations made me feel joy and acceptance. But there was a voice in my head telling me Is this what Jesus would want you to do? Am I going against Jesus? I think that over the years I had strayed from God. But suddenly its like my blinders have come off and I think I need to leave the class.

If I was just doing Yoga as an exercise I think it would be fine but all the meditations and vibrations etc isn’t sitting well with me. Last class when they did that I said the Lords prayer in my head and spoke to Jesus.

I need to find a class that doesn’t do this right? Sigh. I feel sad about losing friends but its not worth my relationship with Christ.
Am I overreacting?

I do not believe Jesus would mind that you are doing something healthy for your body. You are not worshipping anyone else. If the meditations are positive that's fine. If anyone is attempting to change your perspective on Jesus as our Savior then leave.

 

[Christ_empowered]

As a Christian I steer clear. Pilates is effective without the occult overlap etc.


To each their own but I do believe that yoga is potentially dangerous. I also avoid mindfulness…mass produced in today’s society as McMindfulness…because I think it represents the unholy alliance of watered down eastern concepts and the commodification of that most elusive,most desired product…
Happiness.

 

[citrus]

Atmosphere is so important. I know so many 90s songs by heart and I never listened to them. It's because of the environment I was in. Your environment changes you even if you don't think it does. It all seeks in. I'm all for stretching. You probably would save money too from just doing stretches instead of going to yoga. I do child's pose all the time at home. I did yoga a couple times and they do all thst chakra nonsense. I just do stuff at home and sometimes pilates.

 

[Tenchi]

I accepted Jesus is my Lord and Saviour back in 1998 and was baptized. As the years passed I never found a church that I felt comfortable at. So I prayed at home, etc.

It will surprise you, then, to know that God never says in His word to participate in the Body of Believers, the Church, only so long as it feels comfortable to do so. No, instead, God says in Scripture that the Church is a community of people that have claws and teeth, warts and lumps, and can be very carnal, very selfish and nasty. Just read the apostle Paul's first letter to the believers at Corinth! Yikes. What a bunch. They were quite awful, guilty even of gross sexual sin. But, you know, Paul never once urged them to cut-and-run from each other, to disband and live as islands unto themselves. He ordered them to eject from their community any person claiming to be a born-again believer who willfully continued in sin (1 Corinthians 5), but to the rest he urged them to unite in and under Christ, learning to be his hands and heart to one another, throwing off their self-centered carnality.

There is no church in existence in which any of us will always feel entirely comfortable. But we aren't directed by God in His word to approach the Church as a consumer of a product, but as a member of a spiritual family, that He has told us to bless and edify, to give His love and truth to. (1 John 4:7-11; 1 John 3:14; John 13:34-35)

The believer who purposefully remains outside of the community of believers will always be weaker, and off-base, and immature spiritually. This is because it is within the Church that God has ordained that the individual believer is strengthened, stabilized and mature. Read Ephesians 4:7-18. Or 1 Corinthians 12:14-26.

As the classes continued I realized that some of these people have beliefs that I don’t share and at first I didn’t understand even what they believed in. There is a lot of mediation in the class and talk of Chakras. Some red flags rose in me but I pushed them aside. The meditations made me feel joy and acceptance. But there was a voice in my head telling me Is this what Jesus would want you to do? Am I going against Jesus? I think that over the years I had strayed from God. But suddenly its like my blinders have come off and I think I need to leave the class.

Yoga has been westernized in many cases, severed from most of its ancient, pagan connections, but its poses were originally a form of pagan worship. Inasmuch as this is so, it ought not to be something in which a worshiper of God participates - even in a watered-down form. Read 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

If I was just doing Yoga as an exercise I think it would be fine but all the meditations and vibrations etc isn’t sitting well with me. Last class when they did that I said the Lords prayer in my head and spoke to Jesus.

I need to find a class that doesn’t do this right? Sigh. I feel sad about losing friends but its not worth my relationship with Christ.
Am I overreacting?

No, you aren't over-reacting. Try Pilates, as has been suggested in this thread already. But, really, what is even more crucial for you to do is to plug-in again to a Bible-believing, evangelical church. See above.