To Be Cliché, or not to Be Cliché: That is the Question.

So now I am stuck trying to figure out where to take this blog from here. It could go in several directions. So I asked my husband Tim what he thought today and he said that if it was him, he would make it funny. His suggestion was to first clear the air and write a post about “The Elephant Fart in the Room.” I love my husband. That isn’t what I’m going to write about today, but I did tell him that I would let him be a guest blogger. I do hope he takes me up on that. Yoga needs some comic relief. He has started coming to my classes lately so maybe he will share some of his insights with us soon.

So what is yoga and why do I like it so much? I keep asking myself that question a lot lately. I guess I’ll just write about that and see where it goes. I wrote in my journal that yoga isn’t about the actual poses or even the physical practice; yoga is symbolism. I’ll write about symbolism soon, but I need to be honest first.  To be real, yoga is about the poses. First and foremost, yoga is a physical practice that is good for your body and gets/keeps you in shape. I, like many yogis, started yoga for the kick-you-in-the-butt workout. It is no secret that you can get long, lean and toned muscles out of the deal. The cliché, (but true!) list of yoga benefits includes, but is not limited to: flexibility, injury prevention, stress reduction, etc. I wish I could say that I started yoga with loftier goals, but I didn’t. Being a Christian, I wish I could say that I only wanted the physical practice to take care of God’s temple and to stay healthy, but I also didn’t do that. There is a fine line of tension that separates these two motives, but moving past any denial is the first step in AA and in yoga. Baron Baptiste says, “You can only grow beyond where you are if you accept where you are in the first place.” Denial. So I won’t lie to myself anymore or to you. Nope, I will go ahead and chalk that one up to pure vanity. I wanted to look good and to feel good. And by feel good I mean because of the fact that I might look good in yoga pants one day. I wish that I could say that I have grown completely past that. I won’t. I will say that in addition to the physical benefits I have found yoga to be so much more than superficial. But it is still a great way to stay in shape. And I am ok with that.

Now to be totally gut-wrenching honest, I didn’t come up with that on my own. I only very recently dealt with this denial and I need to give credit where credit is due. I’m reading this hilarious book by Claire Dederer called Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses for a book club. I didn’t even choose this book, if you can believe it, but I am enjoying it very much. It is one of those LOL stories that make you laugh until you cry. She points out many clichés and stereotypes, most of which that I fit into. At first they made me laugh. She pokes fun at her first experience in a studio, as her instructor was “a woman in her late twenties...[with] thick blond hair... Her outfit was black and tight. She looked as though she had been a step-aerobics teacher until about five minutes ago. She looked like her name was Jennifer” (11). I happen to be a 20-something white female instructor who happens to also teach Body Step. I laughed a lot through the book. Then I started to get defensive. You know that feeling when someone makes just one too many jokes at your expense? That was me. And I started to defend myself.  Even though she practices it, she makes fun of the type of yoga that I teach and love: Vinyasa. She almost portrays the instructor, Mindy, as a self-centered villain. She says, “it was almost all women who practiced it [vinyasa] and one of the reasons they were so devoted to vinyasa was that it worked. Worked in the very specific sense of making you thin” (197). It’s not just Dederer, either. I have read a lot of articles and blogs recently on the “commodification” of yoga, as if it’s a bad thing. As if too many people practicing yoga takes away from the original practitioners. Basically yogis are crying out that yoga is now too popular and it is horrible that you can find it on every street corner in America. They make fun of the Lululemon movement, a Canadian based company that sells high end exercise clothing and promote community events and free classes. Some would say they are expensive (my husband included) and just a luxury item counter to what yoga is supposed to be all about. All of these things I happen to enjoy. All of these clichés I happen to be a part of. I’m actually thankful to Dederer for pointing that out to me. It made me stop and think and then dig a little deeper.

Cliché is a funny word. Merriam-Webster defines it as “A very predictable or unoriginal thing or person.” Ouch. Nobody wants to be predictable or unoriginal. That means that you are a bland human being. A sheeple. An imitator. A poser who is uninspired and commonplace. Not unique at all. So in order to be the opposite of cliché, we strive to be individuals unlike anyone else. What is that quote? Be yourself because everyone else is taken? Something like that. The problem, however, is that in our great quest to be unique individuals, we are faced with the fact that we are also just like everybody else. One example is a phone. Simple enough, right? But do you have an iphone or something else that is not an iphone, but still a smart phone. Do you not have an iphone because you are rebelling against the great Apple and the masses of people (including myself) who have one? Do you have an iphone because everyone else has one? Now what about your phone case. Ahh, yes, the case. That is what makes your phone your unique accessory, right? Wrong. What color is it? Mine is a white and purple Otterbox Defender, just like many, many others. Oh, and Otterbox makes those cases for not iphones, too. Is it bedazzled? Did you find a website and design your own case? Ok, so maybe yours is unique. Except that it’s still an iphone. Or not an iphone. See my point? So why do we go through all of these pains to be different, yet we all still end up the same? Maybe you don’t have a smart phone at all. Maybe you think you’re better than that. Read Dederer’s book, there’s a lot about that, too. After all, she is calling herself a poser. Even counter-cultures have a set of norms and rules that they follow.

The underlying issue here is that, while we don’t want to be like everyone else, we do want to be like everyone else. That is how we connect. We need some common ground in order to do that. And common ground is just that: common. We want to feel like we are part of something bigger than us. That’s why we all carry the same phone, wear the same clothes, and act like we do, according to the norms of whatever stereotypes we are a part of: so that we don't feel alone. So why do we look down on each other for doing this? Why it is such a bad thing to be like-minded? Why not embrace what we have in common; these things that bring us together and these things that unite us? After all, in John chaper 17:21-23, Jesus prays for all believers, "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me--so that they may be brought to complete unity." Paul writes in Philippians 1:2, "then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind." Obviously, I'm not still talking about iphones, but something deeper. This is what I’ve learned by reading Poser: it's ok to be cliche. Instead of fighting the clichés and stereotypes and trying to deny that I am a part of them, I will simply accept them and move on. I will be unique in the way that I quilt the clichés together to form my individuality and by which stereotypes I choose to be a part of. I will stop being defensive. I will stop pretending that I am better than that or above it. I will embrace what I have in common with other people and enjoy our sameness as I enjoy our differences!

the yoga project

Many of you who are reading this blog already know some of the ideas that I've had in the back of my mind for a while now. In fact, I just checked and the first message I sent to a few of my yogi friends about this subject is actually date stamped August 23, 2010. Today happens to be August 22, 2011. It has been an entire year of dreaming, inspiration, praying and lots and lots of reading and preparation.  You see, I don’t believe in mere coincidence. I believe in Godly inspiration and connection. So the fact that this post comes almost exactly one year after the inception brings me more joy and happiness than I can describe. And one year later I am even more excited and still committed to this dream.  Now that means something.

So here it is: my dream. I like to call it “the yoga project.” For lack of graphic design experience, visualize that looking more dramatic. Maybe in a different font. And make the “t” at the end of “project” into a cross. There, now that’s better.  How I explained it to my friends a year ago is this: to bring yoga to places and communities of people that are hurting emotionally (think Salvation Army, Advocacy Center, poor, underprivileged, abused and forgotten groups of people who would normally not have access to classes) and give them a chance to experience a physical, emotional and spiritual uplifting. It’s sort of a Christian-based, yoga, non-profit smorgasbord of a healing project, if I may. And I emphasize non-profit. This is the foundation, by no means the full extent. I imagine it will take many shapes as it is not just for poor people, either. It is meant to be there for anybody that needs it. I'm really trying not to get in the way and limit this project with expectations. Some of the groups that meet at my church include Divorce Care and Survivors of Suicide. I believe this will be useful for that, too. Even leadership groups or just plain groups of people wanting to connect with each other in a new way. I simply want to share my passion and my gifts and use my talents for service, even if it means I can only make a small difference. I have decided to live the principles that I employ on my mat. Right now. Today. In this present moment. I will hold no expectations or judgments regarding the yoga project.  To do so I feel would either set limitations on it if my expectations are too low, or bring disappointment if I set my expectations too high. So I’m just going to put it out there and see where it goes. Feel free to comment and give honest feedback.

Now let me back up and make a few connections and explain some of the many influences that make this project what it is. While writing this entry, I honestly feel more like I’m plagiarizing and simply piecing together other people’s words rather than forming my own. You’ll start to see the references. As I write I have one journal, seven books (scratch that, make it nine), my ipad (with a few more books), and my laptop spread out all over the kitchen table.  Yet my chaotic table reminds me of a very basic idea. The connection found in all of these things is the point of yoga, and the purpose. In Ganga White’s book “Yoga Beyond Belief,” he says, “Part of yoga practice,…is to connect.”   So here I am connecting. You’ll see references from the Bible, different books, poetry, music, people and maybe even Wikipedia. No, not really Wikipedia, but it could happen. On a greater scale, however, this is about connecting people and connecting to and with God. For me, this project is about loving God, loving people and showing compassion toward others using all of my resources (see the HCC Mission Statement and definition of Karuna at the bottom of this post). This project is my yoga practice in action and an act of praise and worship. I’ll simply share some of the pieces, and my hope is you’ll see the connection in all of these.

Yoga means different things for different people. For me, yoga is an act and an art form of praise and worship. This project is my yoga practice and my faith in action. Yoga isn’t like that for everyone. For a lot of people it is simply a way to a longer, leaner, more flexible body. But once you break the surface of the body and connect and dive a little deeper, it is so much more than that. In Crazy Love, Francis Chan writes that “Whatever God’s reason’s for such diversity, creativity, and sophistication in the universe, on earth, and in our own bodies, the point of it all is His glory. God’s art speaks of Himself, reflecting who He is and what He is like.” I feel like our art and what we create and share should reflect ourselves, and in a manner of speaking, also our God, who lives in us. Yoga is art and is created by every breath, every movement and every intention we bring to it. B.K.S. Iyengar writes that

When one has mastered an asana [a pose], it comes with effortless ease and causes no discomfort. The bodily movements become graceful. While performing asanas, the student’s body assumes numerous forms of life found in creation—from the lowliest insect to the most perfect sage—and he learns that in all these there breathes the same Universal Spirit—the Spirit of God. He looks within himself while practicing and feels the presence of God in different asanas which he does with a sense of surrender unto the feet of the Lord.

Not only is each posture a creation and an art form, but the very breath and the awareness of breath breathes life into worship and brings you into the present moment. I will try to explain as clearly as I can, but the first post on this blog is a poem I wrote a few years ago after hearing the poet Li-Young Lee speak at Baylor for the Beall Poetry Festival. Well, that and I wrote it for my final exam in Relaxation and Fitness. I got a 125 out of 100. But I digress.  Breath has many facets. As Li-Young Lee describes it with every inhale, physical things that I do not entirely remember happen that literally make your body have more energy and be “more alive.” Iyengar notes that “the very word, inspiration, meaning both to breathe in and to grasp a feeling in the form of an idea, expresses the way the brain is charged during inhalation.  As you exhale, something like capillaries shrink, etc. and energy leaves and you “die a little.” Please excuse my memory, but at the time it was riveting. I wish I had taken notes. His point was that we speak on the exhale. Think about it. When you talk you are breathing out. So quite literally, every word we speak is our dying word, our expiration as we expire. Wow. Talk about watching what we say. Now, God breathed life into man. It’s how we were created. He inspires into us. He inspires us. And He spoke creation into existence, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3. And, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1-2. Now go back and read the poem. Only if you want to, of course.

I have said many times that I can talk about yoga for hours. So I will simply leave you with a few of my favorite quotations that I strive for, and feel like I need to share:

“Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice Hospitality.” Romans 12:12

“I’m just one beggar telling another beggar where to find the bread.” I’m not sure of the primary source, but Tommy Politz says this a lot.

“To love God as we lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.” Hillside Christian Church Mission Statement

Karuna is not merely showing pity or compassion and shedding tears of despair at the misery of others. It is compassion coupled with DEVOTED [which is not always convenient] action to relieve the misery of the afflicted. The yogi (and Christian) uses all his resources—physical, economic, mental or moral—to alleviate the pain and suffering of others. He shares his strength with the weak until they become strong. He shares his courage with those that are timid until they become brave by his example.           The Sanskrit word Karuna as defined by B.K.S Iyengar in Light on Yoga

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4: 10

“When your heart is to give to others from what God has given to you, He will enable you to do that.” Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Woman

“Sometimes what feels like a setback is really preparation for a big leap forward. Progress isn’t a neat linear path.” Anna Lappe

“Be still, and know that I am God…” Psalm 46:10

“You don’t have to entertain every thought that comes into your head. You have a choice about whether to listen to them or not.” Stormie Omartian

“Doubt your doubts” and, “You can only grow beyond where you are if you accept where you are in the first place.” Also, “Whatever you give your positive or negative attention to, you will energize, for better or for worse.” Baron Baptiste

“Don’t you know who you are? You are more than the choices that you’ve made, you are more than the sum of your past mistakes, you are more than the problems you’ve created. You’ve been remade.” Tenth Avenue North

“Oh, Your love is a symphony, all around me, running through me. Oh, Your love is a melody, underneath me, running to me. All your love is a song.” Switchfoot

“Come undone, surrender is stronger. I don’t need to be the hero tonight.” FFH

“Remember to soften your words, soften your heart, and soften your thoughts. May you always be blessed. Namaste.” As I learned from my teacher, Shane Zolin.

Breathing Deep

Relax—

Fill the lungs and allow the ribs to expand.

Celebrate life with each breath

Exhale—slowly.

Let every expectation dissipate.

Breath is Life

Exhaled into the lungs of man

Life—created by breath

Breath—created by Life

And by a Word.

Ask John—In the beginning was—

The Word—and Breath—and Life.

Inhale—

Exhale—

Words are formed on the out breath

Share life

“Soften your Words” my yoga teacher says—

Exhale warmth.

“Namaste” my yoga teacher says—

The greatness in me

Acknowledges the greatness in you.

Remember to Breathe.

Jackie Williams

October 21, 2008