Friday, July 11, 2008

Ain't Sports

Yoga ain't sports. Please don't compare yourself to pictures you see, or even the ones you have in your brain. Come to class.

I hear people say all the time that they aren't "flexible," or something along those lines, and I have to say that, as shown in communities where the lifestyle is more developed than in most parts of the Midwest, there are a plethora of reasons to make yoga a way of life--the physical part being just one reason. Class is usually the core part of that lifestyle, but flexibility will come (and usually fast). The benefits of even efforting in a yogic direction is a high and virtuous effort, indeed. Sweet, too.

Another thing I hear is that it's "intimidating." Right there--that's thinking.

We don't think in yoga. We breathe and move. That's about it. Feel, sense, heal ourselves, and look good. Yea, it looks nice.

It doesn't matter, however, because you're so into how splendidly uplifted and good it is to be practicing your yoga that nothing else in the world seems quite so right or as important.

I, frankly, like the fact that I can smell all the yoga spaces I've ever practiced in still in my yoga mat. It's like I step onto that simple black rectangle and I am one with every studio, teacher, and collective class effort I've ever interacted with. And anything I've ever done on my own.

And the collective efforts I don't like, I just don't go there.

I love yoga.

It is good to spend more time loving and choosing, rather than getting down on and analyzing, as a path, whether you're practicing yoga or not. These things are felt.

If you endeavor to be that person, yoga is a good pathway because yogis and yoginis tend to get down like that (you know, as in live)(the real good ones, anyway).