Help! Is Yoga Good or Bad for Me?

Help! Is Yoga Good or Bad for Me? 

With the recent snow storm in the press about Yoga I can’t tell if Yoga is good or bad for me? Signed~ an open-hearted, hand-standing, stretchy-pant wearing, wheat-grass drinking yogini. (Oops...that could be me!)  Actually, I think the better question is Why do Yoga?  With news reports on falling Yoga gurus and Yogas historic link to sex cults (not true) hot in the mainstream presses I have to say I am thankful because it has spurred many people to question Yoga.  Good! Less blind followers and more awakened inquirers.  Now we can focus on what Yoga really has to offer.

Occasionally while teaching, I ask students while holding a rigorous pose like plank or chair-- Why are you practicing Yoga anyway? Why are you doing this pose, what is the point?  Spontaneous awakening occurs!  What do you mean, Why?  You can sleep through your vinyasa flow, you can check-out in downward dog but as soon as you question what you are doing, while in the act of doing it,  you are surged into the present moment.  Super!  Yoga is all about waking up and becoming aware of your actions and habits. Now the practice of Yoga can begin and healing is accessible because attention is channeled into the here and now. Yes, Yoga is a path of real transformation and healing by way of presence.

Back to the current Yoga media circus-- now John will juggle 5 balls of fire while hula-hooping and dropping into wheel pose-- admit, it would be fantastic to see!  On the bright side the New York Times articles, even though poking ruthlessly at Yoga, has turned up Yoga students’ inner inquiry machine which I am happy to see. As we get more in touch with the Why of Yoga we fling the door of attention open and can see the real intentions for Why we practice. I want a nice butt, I want to meet hot women, I am depressed and lonely... now we are getting somewhere. Questioning is a doorway to the room of truth. Do you enter?  Not the truth of whether John Friend (a worldwide Yoga superstar) slept with wiccan women or consensually sex-texted a student but the deeper inquiry of “How can I use all that I encounter to learn more about myself and my own intentions thereby offering me the gift of developing my personal truth.  In the end, honest self-reflection will not only reveal the root of our deepest desires and motivations but will make us better leaders, teachers and students of Yoga and of Life.

When I heard the news flashes in the NYT, Huffington Post, and FB Blogs about falling Yoga rock stars, yoga as risky business, sex and yoga I realized it was time to ask myself again-- Why Yoga? I have asked this question throughout my 17 year practice and needless to say-- I am still practicing.  Here is why.

From childhood trauma, accidents, bed ridden whiplash, cracked sternum, two births to heart break Yoga has been the best healing salve I have ever applied.  This practice empowered me to step up and be my own healer. Yoga delivers a tough love punch and says~ buck-up whiners and realize that nothing or nobody is going to save you.  No teacher, no pill, no-thing outside of myself is going to do it for me.  Yoga is a relentless truth illuminating practice that calls for nothing but my full and complete honesty and presence.  It is an intense inner cooking process whose high-heat and pressure has produced a brilliant inner diamond.  This brilliant gem I speak of is  the development of a deep inner knowing-- a connection to an unwavering, blindingly bright light within that continues to astound me.  As you can imagine-- it has changed my life.  

My hope is that students buy neither the hype nor the criticism of Yoga.  That we turn to our spiritual practice whether Yoga or some other tradition to develop a process of self-reflection that leads to a revelation of our personal truth. That we listen to our own body, heart and mind and continue to evolve a living truth within. That we are less mesmerized by flowery language or the perfect asana of a rising star teacher-- and more trusting of and rooted in our direct experience. That we practice Yoga because we feel ‘something’ unmistakably beautiful unfolding. They we feel the flow and grace that inevitably comes with dedicated Yoga practice and the exhilaration and clarity that comes from nothing bought, borrowed or sold. 

YOGA is a path to awakening and it has helped me to question myself and the world I live in. To search for my own truth, to root deep in my own soul and to connect to the universal energy that is luminous and never changing.  Yes, never changing.. even if all the Yoga gurus decided to have an orgy, burn Tantric yoga flags and party all night long.

The media will move on to the next more sensational thing that comes along... and I will still be practicing and teaching what I know to be a deeply meaningful and life affirming path of Yoga.  I bow to my teachers however flawed they may be. Ultimately, they have taught me to rely on my own experience and trust myself as my own guru.  With deep respect for all yogis and yoginis. Practice on~ Namaste!