Finding Your Peace of Yoga

HAAAAAAAA, leading with pun’s in titles is always a good start.

If you didn’t scope last week’s post I ended with the cliffhanger that is, ‘What do I think while I handstand?’ This I will answer before the post is out, I promise but first I would like to talk a bit about Yoga and my love for it.

I would like to begin with Yoga is not $190 Lululemon pants and up-dog to down-dog, oh-no. Yoga is so much deeper than that. A few years back I traveled to India to study yoga, before I went all I knew about Yoga was pretty much what you can pick up from playing as Dhalsim in Street-Fighter II (which isn’t actually even remotely yoga related). I never realised how deep the rabbit hole was (that is yoga) nor how deep I would fall into this hole! The word ‘Yoga’ roughly means “Unity.” Now unity doesn’t directly refer to unity of breath and movement through your vinyasa series, it is more referring to the unity of oneness and not just oneness of you to me but oneness of everything. Everything is here for a purpose and for this to work, everything has a purpose and is meant to be exactly as it is being. I should add in at this point, yoga is NOT a religion but closer to a philosophy.

So another thing that makes this subject very difficult to talk about is the difference between being born in the western vs eastern world. One thing that isn’t too common knowledge if you have never tried to read the Bhagavad Gita nor had a look at the Yoga Sutras is that the english language is clumsy and we don’t have the required words to talk about the philosophies of the world in a non-literal sense. We also view everything very linearly versus the almost circle of life that is the Hindi world. So this can lead to a lot of confusing but interesting discussions when talking about Eastern philosophy and it’s inevitable to end up with what catholic priests like to say; “I think what God meant to say was…” (said in a southern accent from the USA) But that is exactly it, I think what God meant to say is exactly what you thought God was meant to say in the yoga world. The reason being, YOU ARE GOD. In the east it wasn’t uncommon for all to think of themselves and everyone else around that they  (and we) are all God. And if you ask me, of course you are! How can you not be? How could the world possibly be interpreted the way you interpret it without you being you? When you are born around only atheists and Catholics it’s hard idea to grasp but God isn’t necessarily a literal being that is the evil tyrant that over looks the world judging us on the unfair predicaments he has presided for us and damning us to hell for making the decision he knew we would make. But more so the word God in the creator sense and do you not create your own views and perceptions of the world? Go back to that famous theory of us being that chemical fluke under the giant’s fingernail in the way we see as “insignificant” things as germs. Now go back to what I was saying, would this theoretical (or perhaps literal?) giant exist if we did not? No, it would be impossible! Everything is here and is meant to be in the exact way it is and could not exist without it.   

That was the shortest I could possibly make that whole spill, my very ideas on life and existence crow-barred into a few paragraphs. We haven’t finished just yet though. I would now like to throw in a very famous Lao Tzu quote you have probably seen posted on facebook with a tree next to it written in very appealing font by someone who was probably having a bad day or if you follow something along the lines of Spirit Science. “If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.’’ This here can be referring to yoga in itself. The sense of Oneness, all belonging and being at peace with all that is that. And if you are still wondering where I am going with all this, this is it. For me, Handstands are my Yoga, I am focused completely on the now. No past regrets come to mind or big decisions that I’m going to have to make, all I’m thinking about is exactly what I am doing. It creates a stillness and a simplicity that is almost euphoric. And if you were to ask me why I just decided to dedicate so much to handstands and want to pass on my knowledge is for the very reason that it may not be a yoga to you but for the chance I help even one other find their yoga, it will all be worth it. Enjoy the simple things.

One Love,

Harry