Part of being a practitioner of yoga means understanding the culture and origins behind the practice that we love. Here are our five favorite yoga documentaries to help you learn more:

Yoga documentary #1: Yoga Inc.

Do we want instant enlightenment? What happens when yoga becomes part of the American culture, is surrounded by affluence and becomes big business? Yoga Inc. a 2007 documentary by John Philp explores all of those questions.

Watch Yoga Inc. online:

Yoga documentary #2: Why we breathe

Another U.S.-based documentary, why we breathe explores yoga’s popularity by asking yogis “Why do you do yoga? Why do you love it?” The film also focuses on the positivity that yoga can cultivate in your life.

Watch the full movie:

Yoga documentary #3: Enlighten Up!

In Enlighten Up! the filmmaker follows one man’s search for transformation through yoga. The subject, Nick, is a beginner, who is looking for some sort of transformation through yoga, the questions is, whether he will find it and if it’s what he’s looking for.

Watch the full documentary:

Yoga Documentary #4: Yoga Woman

Combine girl power, historical perspectives and yoga and you have Yoga Woman. This film explores how women have taken over a practice that they were never allowed to have before. The film addresses problems women experience — media messages, body images, etc — and how yoga can help free women from that.

Watch the trailer:

Yoga documentary #5: Yoga Is

Confronted by the tragedy of her mother’s terminal cancer, filmmaker and journalist Suzanne Bryant throws herself into the one place she finds solace — yoga. In Yoga Is he begins to explore the ancient practice both with prominent Western teachers and traditional practitioners in India.

Watch the trailer:

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