“Not Very Yoga-Like.”

This always baffles me.  When someone calls me on something that isn’t “very Yoga-like”.  Please explain to me what that means.

There are so many ideas of what being “Yoga-like” is in this society and apparently it means “don’t be human, or don’t tell me the truth, or really, don’t tell me how you feel, especially if it ain’t good”.

I practice Yoga everyday and have for many years, I do asanas, I meditate, I am deeply in touch with my inner life and my “issues” which sometimes can be tough, living in the “real world”.  I have a deep connection to God and Guru, deep devotion in my heart. But having all this “knowing” makes my life richer, I am able to choose how I want to react.  I am able to speak from which chakra people can hear me from.  I am able to watch and hear what isn’t being said by listening deeply to what I am feeling or watching someones body language.

I cry, I get hurt, I get upset, I get mad, Yeah, and sometimes I YELL.  There I said it.

Yoga is not about NOT being human.  It’s about embracing what IS. Being Human. That’s it. Acceptance.  Don’t the Angels cry to be human? or to taste that one tear? or to feel that devastation or joy?  This is it ya’ll.  The ultimate experience.

Kundalini Yoga teaches us to do our daily practice and live in the “real world”.  Yogi Bhajan himself said (paraphrased) Don’t try to overcome your ego, use it to SERVE you.  He teaches us to use our “neutral mind”, develop our radiant bodies, work out our “issues” on the mat, drop what doesn’t serve your highest self.  He never says, “don’t be human”, or “don’t feel your emotions”, or “don’t scream and yell”.

So, I will go on being a Yoga teacher, a mother, a wife, a friend, a sister, a daughter, teaching what I know, learning from life, and sometimes not being very “Yoga-like”. Om Sat Nam Bless what IS~ Viriam Kaur

Valinda Cochella (Viriam Kaur: it means the princess who is the bringer of divine truth) MA, E-RYT 500, Founder of South Bay Yoginis worked as a Dance/Movement Therapist for many years starting in 1994, when she completed a Master’s degree in Dance/Movement Therapy from UCLA. Upon completion of her Master’s degree, she worked for seven years as a Therapist, Counselor and Teacher abroad (in Mexico and Japan). Valinda has been practicing Yoga since 1994, and has been passionately studying yoga ever since.

You can find her at: South Bay Yoginis and her blog  My Life is My Sadhana

This post  published in response to the Elephant Yoga Open Blogging Forum

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