Thursday, December 12, 2013

The Shoulds and Shouldn'ts of Yoga

I have read a plethora of articles and blogs telling me not to be so judgmental, egotistical, materialistic...my list of flaws goes on. The inference being that I am not a real practitioner of yoga and possibly a bad person to boot.

I recently read an article, "Signs your yoga practice is no longer your own."* What the eff does that even mean? Lululemon has put on your skin like a meat-sack and is currently forcing your downward dog? (If this has actually happened to you, please contact me, that is some seriously cutting-edge marketing and I want in.)

Yogis, you are not evil for wanting your fancy mat. It is correct that you don't NEED it. I don't need a chocolate cookie for breakfast either, but I sure do prefer it. I am happy for the yogis that practice on dirt in robes made by hand from recycled dryer lint. I am not there yet and that's okay.

Yogis, you are not evil for wanting your toosh off your thighs. If I am concerned about my hypothetical ginormous floppy ass right now, that's okay. I hope to move past it, but maybe I will remain fixated on it for the duration. I'll do my best to ignore my ass obsession if everyone else does too.

Yogis, you are not a bad yogi for pushing yourself to go to yoga. I have read so many, "don't force yourself to go to class. If your body doesn't want it, don't." My body wants donuts. Lots of them. And once my body gets the donuts it hates me for letting it have the donut. It reacts to yoga in the exact opposite way. I will stop 'pushing my body to go to class' when I get my hands on that Lululemon meat-sack trick. I will wear other blogresses' carcases like a cape and joyfully skip into yoga each day. Until that day, don't make me feel guilty for forcing myself into the room.

We're not always going to walk into the room a mirror image of Gandhi and that's okay. Your yoga practice is your practice, not Gandhi's. Unless you are wearing him like a meat-sack.

I didn't draw anything for this post so here's a drawing I did of Thor fighting Ice Giants instead. 

* I want to give citation but I can't find the damn thing.

4 comments:

  1. Just found your blog and am totally blog-crushing on you!! Not to mention getting motivation to actually maintain the yoga blog I created earlier this year. Haven't had a chance to read back through many of your previous posts, but are you training to compete at the IL championships this year?

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    1. Reading this makes me so happy! Thank you, VanillaBee! I will have to check out your blog too! I am competing, although my training has been considerably more lax than I would like. Practically non-existant. Still, what kind of a yogi would I be if I told everyone else that ability doesn't matter and then shirked going because my own ability wasn't where I want it? So, ONWARD AND UPWARD! To regionals we go!

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  2. Best of luck!! Nationals are in San Antonio (where I live), so I hope to see you there either way!

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    1. They moved Nationals to Texas? Whoa! That's a big change! Much more pleasant place to visit than New York during the winter, so I fully support that move! Hope to see you too, I will most likely be a spectator. Hey, does that mean you know Afton?

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