Yoga Beautiful

Get over it.

There you go: My advice for blissful and radiant health and happiness. So profound I’m going to repeat it.

Get over it!

After years of teaching yoga and a few of teaching fitness, I have had cause to…study…many varied opinions on how exactly we are to be. The world of yoga is constantly churning out images, styles and techniques that are supposed to create “happiness”. The fitness gurus continue to shout out ways that we can become “healthy”. These are admirable goals, both, and I do not discourage them.

But the longer I do this—the more I pursue this—I am beginning to realize that “happy” really means “perfect” and “healthy” should read “beautiful”. To top it off, yoga and fitness has all of a sudden become the same thing. So now I’m supposed to be a beautiful and perfect human being. And that pisses me off.

Because no human is perfect—even those who may or may not have reached the summit of the purported yoga mountain. And beauty has very, very little to do with health. I have thoroughly had enough of chasing these supposed ideals. I don’t want to be a perfect little yogi. And I’m too goddamned old to try and compete with the national ideal of beauty. I’m getting over it; I suggest you do the same.

So, look. Yoga is awesome and you should do it. It will make you feel better. 100 percent better in every aspect of your life. And you should exercise, period. But doing yoga and being fit has nothing to do with being a vegetarian, wearing organic clothes, buying organic foods, taking expensive weekend retreats, visiting India, carrying your own personal PVC free yoga mat, sporting an Om necklace, t-shirt or pants or whatever, burning incense, eating raw, renouncing sugar, caffeine and flour, creating a perfect yoga ‘booty’, mastering crazy stupid asana, or, most importantly calling yourself a ‘yogi’ because you do all of these things.

Doing yoga is about making yourself feel better and developing an ability to remain clam when shit gets rough. A healthy (see, there, I said healthy, not perfect/gorgeous) body doesn’t distract you all the time and make you cranky. When you are cranky, you don’t usually give a crap about what somebody else is going through, ergo you aren’t a very nice person. In my opinion, this is the heart of yoga. Feel better; be considerate. Period.

And I know there is the whole “god” component that a ton of yogis are going to come after me about. What about god? Yoga means to yoke, as in yoke yourself to god. I know, I do. This is what I have to say about that….

Your body is more energy than it is mass. Really, look it up. The reason that your body isn’t flying off into a million tiny little atoms is because the energetic force of the universe is holding it together. Your body actually vibrates at the same frequency as the background radiation of the Universe. All energy travels in waves and energy cannot be created or destroyed. So, energy is eternal. Your energy is eternal. Call it whatever else you want, god, soul, etc, the plain, unvarnished science of it is plain. You are energy and that energy cannot be destroyed. Energy is god.

Furthermore, all matter is just energy having a ‘matter experience’. Seriously, look it up. The rock, the plant, the cloth we wear is all simply energy having a matter experience. It, too, is eternal (so be nice). I like to think of this matter experience as being in the trough of the energy wave—and that trough only lasts for so long, say, 80 years or so. The peak of the wave is my time to be an infinite being, the trough is my time to be a finite being. Sadly, I don’t get to remember what it is like to be eternal at this time—maybe I don’t get to remember what it is like to be a finite being at that time. I don’t know if changing the frequency of my wave is a good thing or a bad thing, and frankly, that seems more like an eternal me sort of issue. Bottom line, I’m here now. And I will be there then.

It is inevitable. I’m not going to suddenly end up stuck here in the finite realm no matter what I do. So, it seems to me that I have plenty of time to be eternal, and not so much time to be finite. This life experience should be my focus, and there is so much of it to enjoy.

I know that is no excuse to behave badly, and I don’t. Feel better; Be considerate; Act moderately. That pretty much covers the gamut of decent behaviour, don’t you think? I really don’t need a slew of “perfect” and “beautiful” people telling me how to get there.

In my opinion, life without croissant is no life at all. And if you disagree you have obviously never had a fantastic croissant. Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy (Ben Franklin). A finely brewed espresso after an intricately and lovingly prepared French meal is just this side of bliss. Good sex for the sake of good sex is a perk of being human. The feel of your muscles moving under your skin—no matter how they look on camera--is divine. Chocolate Cake, seriously…chocolate…cake, people!!

We should relish being human. We should laugh at our flaws and enjoy how they make us unique. We should observe our emotions even as we are feeling them and wonder at how they exist. Its amazing. This whole finite life thing is just amazing—even when it seems to suck. Get over it already.

Perfect and beautiful is an illusion. Reality is much more interesting. That's just my opinion...