Recently it was the holidays and I got away from my yoga practice. I moved cross-country -- I started two new days jobs, I moved back into my house -- so many many things: changes-- the new, the old it all collided around the holidays, until it was almost two weeks and I hadn't practiced regularly. If it's possible to feel your own circulation diminish I felt it. Blood, life, went into a stillness --- but not the stillness that we talk about in yoga. The stillness of stagnation -- lack of movement, lack of flow. All around my personal life was filled with challenge...my friends weren't getting along, strangers weren't getting along -- my cousin announced a divorce, a former colleague died. Is it a coincidence that I wasn't practicing -- I can sometimes be superstitious about certain things -- wear a lucky color, but that's about it. No, it isn't that if I don't practice bad things happen: it's that these types of things are always happening and when I don't practice I am not at 100 percent, and therefore dealing with these things throws me (much more than if I do practice). I recently watched two films: Food Inc. and Super Size Me...which also coincided with my yoga practice derailing... It all pointed in the same direction: take care of yourself. If you haven't seen either of this two films they are worth your while. Food Inc. shows how far away we have come from really knowing what is even in our foods, and Super Size Me, shows just how easy it is to get sick from all the fast foods we have readily available to us. Organic food is more expensive and fast food chains are all over working class neighborhoods. Yoga means union -- if we are so far away from where our food is -- if we are so far away from each other's neighborhoods (this includes the NIMBYS!) we are far away from yoga. I went back to class today. My mantra was, "I am at peace in my yoga practice".
