this is the pose.
warrior two.
one day–maybe five years ago–we were all in this pose. and something inside of me starting laughing. at myself. at the teacher. and at everyone around me.
here we were, a bunch of fully grown adults standing still like statues in some sort of superhero museum, taking it as seriously as if we were truly superheroes and if we didn’t bend our knees just so we would, in fact, fail to save the world from imminent destruction.
that was the day my whole view of yoga changed forever. the day that i woke up and realized that asana, while incredibly powerful, healing, and profound, is also sort of stupid.
there. i said it.
my whole life revolves around teaching this stuff and i love everything about it, but if i were an alien recently transplanted to planet earth, and dropped into a yoga class, i would probably let out a huge “wtf”…if my alien language capabilities allowed me that utterance.
after that revelation, it became very difficult to teach asana without a smile on my face and a laugh in my discourse.
some people take this stuff way too seriously. i used to, too. but now i look at my asana practice a bit differently.
now, it looks like this:
listen, there are things in life that are truly worth furrowing your brow, hunkering down, and worrying about. like cancer, world hunger, terrorism…not like warrior two…or one or three or whatever other number you wish to insert here.
as far as i’m concerned, there is yin and yang energy to every endeavor in life. in asana, the yang is obvious. it’s the hard, intense work–both physical and mental–that goes into mastery. but there’s gotta be the yin, too. the part that relaxes somewhere, smiles, and is even willing to laugh…sometimes at yourself.
YOGAthletica 