Yoga Is For Everybody? Not Quite...

This 2-minute quiz shows you if yoga is for you. Or what you should do instead.

Standing Upside Down

Happiness | Lifestyle

Here is what I love most about yoga—the profound depth of the practice to communicate in all ways.

It gives us so, so much— sometimes it helps me ch.eck in with a specific physical ailment or mental obstruction, often it is an experience that just “makes me feel good”, and occasionally I receive a vision that is more about “the state of the world” and how to navigate some of the challenges we face.

I wrote the following poem (my first time ever writing a poem) as an act of inspiration—something that literally came through me when I sat down to write a post for this column.

I suppose I shouldn’t say what it means (it is poetry after all), though the metaphor is arranged around yoga and it has to do with how I feel about where we are, what’s getting in the way, and where we’re going as human beings on this Earth.

Standing Upside Down

What does the world look like with your feet in the air and your head on the ground?

A Technicolor escape from the usual organization of light and sound?

For what I see is a world in need of prayer, a song amongst the despair, ecstatic rhythms to expose our labored souls bare.

It says time to lose control, upside down to engage the flow, the knowledge that we’re not floating alone—this isn’t a one-man show.

Find savasana and chill the fuck out. Release the burden of heavy lifting, relax the muscles of considerable clout.

No more yada, yada, yada, no more he said, she said. Take a load off, lie down, unwind, and simply mimic the dead.

And when we awake anew we’ll know exactly what to do, for we’ll see life as it truly is beyond the world of me and you.

That illusion existing in the distance, the space created within our existence, man on top of nature as the story’s subconscious mission.

Confused, walking aimlessly, comfort in the material. A short gratification, then back to the treadmill, forever chasing the ethereal.

Two steps from starvation, but already without food, there is nothing left to be done unless it be an act of servitude, done in gratitude.

For what we need can’t be done, it exists in the be. Through the eyes of another is one way to truly see. Or put your two hands together, above your head, pure humility.

Bow down and feel the swiftness, the quickness, the speed. Of this little life we feel the world is begging us to lead.

It’s not what we think it is, it’s more than we can imagine. It doesn’t require our thoughtful designs and certainly not our management.

As for Yoga, it’s a lifeline, a throw-bag from the divine, so pay attention when kundalini makes her journey upwards from the energetic base of your spine.

There’s wisdom in that flow, the vinyasa of our soul, a moving meditation leading us to slow.

But we can find it in other places, no need to unroll a mat. It’s just unlikely to happen if we continue wearing this same old tattered hat.

You know the one, it’s the one that says “I”. The ME, the MINE, touting the big, tough, strong guy.

It’s the woman who has been waiting, waiting to show us the way, she’s known all along she’s just been letting us play.

She’ll lead the journey back, the long journey back to our true self, where we’ll walk hand in hand– a restoration of the Earth to her wealth.

The Queen to her throne, the King to his Crown.

All the while…

Standing Upside Down.

_____

Yoga helps me find the questions I need to ask—helps me to navigate the journey of me, so I may find a more true version of “me”. For that—I am grateful.

What do you find in Yoga?

Featured in New York Magazine, The Guardian, and The Washington Post
Featured in the Huffington Post, USA Today, and VOGUE

Made with ♥ on planet earth.

Copy link
Powered by Social Snap