the existentialist yogi
June 21 is International Day of Yoga.
I remember distinctly the day I first practiced yoga. It was at the 24-hour Fitness in Lewisville, TX, approximately 20 years ago. My teacher’s name was Lori. I was a college sophomore balancing a full-time course load at the University of North Texas, and multiple jobs.
The practice found me and gave me a gift of steady community with elder yogis.
Yoga is completely experiential and operates as a radical practice of existentialism.
Push &pull, retain &let go.
The commitment to the practice over the past two decades has rewarded me with strength, and healing by demanding that I confront reality through direct experience rather than abstract dogma.
It physically anchors me to my present existence, building the resilience needed to bear suffering, beauty, spontaneity.
The consternation and constellations of nearly blacking out.
Be here now.
Right now beckons.
Dizzy presyncope.
To bypass discomfort and be familiar with emotional waves.
The experience is awareness.
Everything changes.
Reset.
The practice also fosters deep emotional and psychological healing.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned it was a practice created to build endurance for meditation, so I started doing that too.
The combination has given me consistency, something to cling onto, having experienced uncertainty and trauma. Incredulity and awe of the body’s capabilities and generosity to endure the heat of bikram.
Yoga is medicine that is portable and can be practiced almost anywhere.
May you experience peace, may you have enough, may you be healthy.
