Higher Ground: 
The Relationship Between D&s 
and Yoga

By Mimi Andronica

mimi_andronica@sympatico.ca 

If you enjoyed this column, read the SCENEprofiles Mini Interview with Mimi

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After leaving my last D&s relationship, I took up yoga. I didn’t select yoga because it served as a substitute for D&s, at least on a conscious level. My mother had been practicing yoga for about a year; she looked great and recommended that I try it. D&s has been my natural inclination for as long as I can recall--I crave the rush and the physical endurance tests -- and when I did yoga, I felt that my lust for D&s was satisfied.

A friend of mine and I had an interesting discussion recently. As someone who is quite sedentary during the day, I explained that D&s and yoga were my outlets for pent up physical energy. The friend then pointed out that there are definite similarities between two practices. I thought about it and the relationship was striking. This article is an extension of this conversation, which I will explore from a sub’s perspective.

So much of modern life involves being enclosed in cars, in our homes, and in our heavy coats during winter. This enclosure also means that we are less physically active. Add to that the fact that we interact with devices all the time. Our private conversations take place on cell phones, PDAs, cordless phones, instant messaging apps, and through email. This mediated communication leaves us disconnected from others not to mention from our bodies. We are trapped in our minds, and much of time, in increasingly worse health. Those of us who are motivated to get to the gym find a great difference in our lives, and our mental and physical health are enhanced significantly.

It is my view that D&s and yoga are both the expression of Man’s urge to release himself from his body. People will go to many lengths to get away from daily irritations and pain, be they mental or physical. Men and women use drugs and alcohol, they do sports, they watch television, and they join religious or cult groups. Some have turned to traditional practices like meditation, while others have sought out more fringe activities such as body-piercing and branding. And then there are those that choose to discipline both their bodies and their minds with a more wholistic approach.

Those who practice power (or ashtanga) yoga and BDSM are experiencing similar things. Both the yoga practitioner and the bottom or submissive are using their bodies, and are undergoing stringent physical and mental discipline in order to reach beyond the corporeal. The discipline from yoga and D&s often involve pain and intense concentration. Even though a submissive is interacting with her Dominant, she starts out focusing on her feelings, her obligation to please her Dominant, and what her body is doing as she is being flogged or spanked. The yoga practitioner, though working alone, is often under the guidance of an instructor, who pushes the practitioner to their limits, sometimes actually pulling or sitting on a subject to help them stretch and extend their bodies.

The aligning of the two practices is not entirely new. In February of 2001, a man known as Dr. Chakra held a seminar in New York City entitled "S/M Yoga: Kundalini's Journey Through The Chakras." Dr. Chakra has been lecturing about what he calls “S/M Yoga” for the past ten years. He developed this type of yoga to aid in stimulating Kundalini, the yoga life force that resides at the base of the spine. Kundalini rises through each of the eight Chakras to the head to trigger enlightenment or Samadhi. Each Chakra has specific psychological blocks, and Dr. Chakra uses elements of traditional yoga, Tantra, and S&M to bring about higher states.

A yoga or D&s session can result in the practitioner reaching a euphoric state. In the case of the submissive, it is subspace; the place where a sub feels dreamy, like they are floating, and the pain is no longer pain, but joy. In yoga a person breathes deeply, focusing on the breaths, and goes through several movements, stretching their muscles more and more each time they inhale. The breathing warms the body and the pain of stretching sends a rush of endorphins from their brain throughout the nervous system.

My hypothesis that D&s is similar to yoga could be applied to anything that sends a rush of endorphins to one’s brain, like sports, but the two practices in question seem to have more in common that just the physical and hormonal. The two practices cannot truly be compared to competitive sports, whether individual or team. Yoga and D&s are not about competition, they are about integrity, honour, and freedom from the strictures of one’s body. This freedom is the sublimation of pent up feelings and tension. This release allows yoga and D&s practitioners to get in touch with their bodies, and feel whole and centered.

Serenity is not something one would immediately associate with D&s play, but as a sub, I know that you certainly find it. Release from daily frustrations is far more satisfying when it comes from your own body, pushed to its limits, rather than from destructive or sedentary habits like using drugs or watching too much television.

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I’d love to hear a Dom’s perspective on the similarities between D&s and yoga. If you have any relevant insights or experience that you’d like to share, you can contact me at mimi_andronica@sympatico.ca