I DON'T DO YOUR YOGA

The other day I was sitting at the pool at my parent’s East Norwalk apartment and was talking to a woman about, what else, yoga. I was... er pigeon-holed into the subject matter as soon as her mother swam toward me and said, “Oh, you are the yoga lady.”

Truly, I am always happily surprised when people have heard about our yoga studio.

Her daughter, about my age, talked openly about all the great things she heard about the studio but then said, “I don’t do your yoga. I do Bikram.” She almost sounded apologetic.

Of course my immediate reaction is always a little defensive. (Immediate reactions I suppose have a history of hurting and not helping situations). Luckily, my defensiveness was concealed and I was able to affirm her preference for “her” yoga by saying my stock response which speaks to the tune of, “whatever helps you to connect to a fuller, healthier life is good yoga.” This piqued her interest, not that I was earnestly trying to sell her on “my” yoga. And while this may have been my own version of subliminal SYJ advertising, I was being completely sincere. I truly believe that if your yoga practice makes you feel good in your life, makes you see and experience your relationships with a deeper and richer perspective, makes your body feel strong and healthy and pain free, then it’s a good working yoga. It’s natural for us to spend our energy defending and protecting our practice, our systems of choice. We covet the deep experience our yoga teachers and yoga studios create for us. We want everyone we know to get what we get. Mitchel often says, “you are a yogi hidden in plain sight.” Yoga is not a messianic world. You are not yoga’s messenger or yoga’s evangelist nor should you care to convert others close to you to do your yoga. Just be yourself, and let other’s be themselves and you will be doing your yoga a great justice.
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