I cringe at every promise of inner peace in yoga class.

Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it before, I think. Yoga will change my life.

In 15 years of practicing yoga, I’ve come to resent that most teachers do not say: Yoga might not change your life at all. Instead, I regularly hear absurdities like jumping into postures breaks up cancer or headstands reverse gray hair. My inbox is overrun with workshops avowing a “mastery of life” and “deep healing,” all in the outlandishly short span of a few hours.

The science behind the benefits of yoga is getting more robust, but much of the language around the practice remains stuck in New Age-ville. Claims ensuring swift physical and mental transformation detract from compelling headway on how yoga actually can help. For instance: New research released online in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found yoga and controlled breathing significantly reduced the depressive symptoms of participants with twice-weekly classes and a home practice over 12 weeks. But taking from that the idea that yoga will cure depression, as many teachers will inevitably do? Not so much.

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