Yoga in Sweden
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File:Yoga on Kayaks in Malmö Sweden.jpg in Malmö, 2016]]
Yoga in Sweden is the practice of yoga, whether for exercise or other reasons, in Sweden. The form of yoga practised in the Western world was influenced by Pehr Henrik Ling's system of gymnastics. Sweden is home, too, to Europe's first yoga school, the Goswami Yoga Institute in Stockholm.
History
{{further|Yoga as exercise}}
File:Pehr Henrik Ling.jpg's gymnastics system shaped the development of modern yoga as exercise.]]
The Swedish gymnastics pioneer Pehr Henrik Ling (1776–1839) devised a system of gymnastics which, according to yoga scholar Mark Singleton, shaped the development of modern yoga as exercise in the Western world.{{cite book |last=Singleton |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Singleton (yoga scholar) |title=Yoga Body : the origins of modern posture practice | publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-539534-1 |oclc=318191988 |title-link=Yoga Body |pages=[https://archive.org/details/yogabodyoriginsm00sing/page/n94 84]-88}}
In 1946, the Austrian Walther Eidlitz (1892–1976), known as Vāmana Dāsa, moved to Sweden and taught Bhakti Yoga there for the rest of his life. Yoga became more widely available in 1949 when the Indian yogi Shyam Sundar Goswami (1891–1978) visited the country for the {{ill|Lingiaden|sv}} gymnastic competition named for Ling. Goswami founded Stockholm's Goswami Yoga Institute the same year: it was the first yoga school in Europe, and Goswami taught there for the rest of his life. His followers continue to run the institute.{{cite web |last=Boll |first=Göran |title=Yogans Historik i Sverige |language=sv |trans-title=History of Yoga in Sweden |url=https://www.goranboll.yoga/erfarenhet/yogans-svenska-historik/ |publisher=Göran Boll |access-date=11 December 2019}}{{cite web |title=Sri Shyam Sundar Goswami |url=https://www.goswamiyogainstitute.com/sri-goswami/ |publisher=Goswami Yoga Institute |access-date=11 December 2019 |language=sv}}
In the early 1960s Bert Yoga Jonson (also called Bert Yogson) opened his yoga studio in Malmö, also teaching in Gothenburg and writing 15 books on yoga.{{cite news |last=Lundborg |first=Johannes |title="Yoga är som att ha samlag med Gud i vardagen..." |trans-title='Yoga is like conversing with God every day' |url=https://www.gd.se/artikel/yoga-ar-som-att-ha-samlag-med-gud-i-vardagen |work=Gefle Dagblad |date=18 October 2002 |language=sv}}
File:SwamiJanakananda_AixLeBains.jpg founded the Kriya Yoga centre in Småland in 1972.]]
In 1972, Swami Janakananda founded the Kriya Yoga centre Håå Kursgård in the southern province of Småland. In 1976, Stockholm's Skandinavisk Yoga och Meditationsskola ("Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School") was founded. It claims to be Stockholm's oldest school of yoga as exercise, and uses Håå Kursgård as its retreat centre.{{cite web |title=Om skolan i Stockholm |trans-title=On schools in Stockholm |url=https://www.yoga.se/stockholm/om/skolan/ |publisher=Skandinavisk Yoga och Meditationsskola |date=2019 |language=sv}} Håå Kursgård is described on another page on the same website.
Rachel Bråthén (1988- ), known as "Yoga Girl", lives and teaches on the island of Aruba in the Caribbean Sea.{{cite news |last=Britt |first=Hannah |title='I was a teenage tearaway before I discovered yoga' |url=http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/597139/Rachel-Brathen-teenage-tearaway-yoga |access-date=18 March 2017 |work=Daily Express |date=9 August 2015}}{{cite news |last=Hannum |first=Claire |title=These Photos Of 'Yoga Girl' Rachel Bråthén Practicing While Pregnant Are Absolutely Gorgeous |url=http://www.self.com/story/rachel-brathen-practices-while-pregnant |access-date=18 March 2017 |work=Self |date=13 October 2016}} Her 2015 book, also called Yoga Girl, became a New York Times best-seller{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2015/04/12/advice-how-to-and-miscellaneous/ |title=Books: Best Sellers: Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous |date=April 12, 2015 |work=The New York Times |access-date=April 11, 2017}}{{cite news |last=Nilsson |first=Linda-Marie |title=Yoga Girl om spriten: Jag drack för att döva |trans-title=Yoga Girl on spirits: I drank to forget |url=http://www.expressen.se/noje/yoga-girl-om-spriten-jag-drack-for-att-dova/ |access-date=3 July 2017 |work=Expressen |date=October 16, 2015}} and popularised the line "Yoga every damn day".{{cite book |last=Bråthén |first=Rachel |title=Yoga Girl |date=2015 |publisher=First Touchstone |isbn=978-1501106767 |at=Chapter 1}}{{cite news |last=Tyzack |first=Anna |title=Bad girl to Yoga Girl: How life changed for Instagram yoga sensation Rachel Bråthén |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/11757601/Bad-girl-to-Yoga-Girl-How-life-changed-for-Instagram-yoga-sensation-Rachel-Brathen.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=23 July 2015}} She helped to pioneer Paddleboard Yoga, having taught it from 2009 onwards.{{cite news |last1=O'Riordan |first1=Alison |title=The beach bum yogi who is bending all of the rules |url=https://www.independent.ie/life/health-wellbeing/the-beach-bum-yogi-who-is-bending-all-of-the-rules-30582719.html |access-date=26 March 2022 |work=Irish Independent |date=12 September 2014}}
Practice
While yoga had a big following in the 20th century, interest in yoga has increased rapidly in the 21st century. Many Swedes state that they practice yoga, though few have read the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.{{cite news |last1=Geels |first1=Antoon |title=Låt yogans urtext tänja tankens muskler |trans-title=Let Yoga's Original Text Stretch your Thought Muscles |url=https://www.svd.se/lat-yogans-urtext-tanja-tankens-muskler |work=Svenska Dagbladet |date=24 March 2019 |language=sv}} In 2017, yoga was Sweden's 8th most popular fitness method, and was the primary fitness activity for 12% of its women and 2% of its men.{{cite web |title=Undersökning om svenskarnas träningsvanor 2017 |trans-title=Research on Swedes' Exercise Habits 2017 |url=http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/stadium_/pressreleases/undersoekning-om-svenskarnas-traeningsvanor-2017-2352166 |publisher=MyNewsDesk |language=sv |date=29 December 2017}}
From 2012 there has been an ongoing debate in Sweden about whether yoga may be taught in schools, as religious instruction is forbidden in the state schooling system. Sweden's School Inspectorate decided in 2012 that Östermalm School in Stockholm could teach yoga as exercise. The scholar Erik af Edholm noted that since Ling's gymnastics had influenced modern yoga, the yoga now practised in Sweden was a secularised and reimported form of gymnastics.{{cite web |last1=Nilsson |first1=Magnus |last2=Selldén |first2=Karin |title=Yoga - omdiskuterad och återimporterad |trans-title=Yoga – Debated and Reimported |url=https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=91&artikel=6421766 |publisher=Sveriges Radio |date=28 April 2016 |language=sv}}
Sweden is, according to The Wall Street Journal, an "excellent place" for yoga retreats.{{cite news |last1=Russell |first1=Helen |title=A Nordic Namaste: The Best Yoga Retreats in Scandinavia |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-best-yoga-retreats-in-scandinavia-1392934684 |date=20 February 2014}}
See also
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
- Yoga in Britain
- Yoga in France
- Yoga in Germany
- Yoga in Italy
- Yoga in Russia
- Yoga in the United States
}}