Beyond the Mat: How to Use Yoga as a Lifelong Tool for Health and Wellbeing — with Val Sklar Robinson

Yoga is more than exercise—it’s a practice that can shape health, resilience, and wellbeing across a lifetime. In the West, yoga is often reduced to stretching, strength, and postures—but in its original form, yoga was never just physical. Rooted in ancient Indian philosophy, yoga is a spiritual discipline aimed at stilling the mind, withdrawing the senses from the external world (pratyāhāra), and moving closer to union with the divine.

In this episode of The Health Curve Podcast, host Dr. Jason Arora speaks with one of his own yoga teachers, Val Sklar Robinson, founder of Hot Yoga Pasadena and former student of Bikram Choudhury, the controversial figure behind the hot yoga ('Bikram Yoga') style now known as 26+2. Val has taught thousands of students and brings a deep perspective on how yoga has been interpreted, adapted, and transformed across cultures.

Together, they explore what yoga truly means beyond the mat - how the asanas are just one small entry point into a much larger system of self-discipline, meditation, and transformation - and how this deeper understanding of yoga can serve as a lifelong practice for health, resilience, and wellbeing.