This past week, like many others in typical October tradition, we welcomed back Rick & his crew back into our living rooms. My husband and I were admittedly a little bit nervous to watch the season premier of The Walking Dead this year, given the cliff hanger season finale. We knew this meant the season would start off in a pretty grim manner. The Walking Dead certainly didn’t disappoint. As we watched, and grimaced, we both said after the show ended, “Why on earth do we watch this?”. I couldn’t help but wonder how television became so shockingly disturbing. Don’t get me wrong, we’re both big fans of the show and this blog post isn’t going to be about how I think we should all get off the zombie train and start watching wholesome television again (though, I long for the days of Seventh Heaven....).
This blog post is about why I feel like yoga is becoming more and more necessary in our lives.
Truth is. We are addicted to consuming.
We consume, continuously, day in and day out. We are constantly fed information via our smart phones, computer screens and televisions. From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep at night. We are addicted to the constant stimulation we receive from technology. Every moment of quiet we find ourselves in, it isn’t long before we fill that space with social media, text messaging, email or television.
Moments of stillness are rare.
Because of this addiction, we have become desensitized to the information we are taking in. In order for something to truly capture our attention, it has got to be sensationalized, extreme and exciting. This is why, one of the most popular television shows in North America has to open it’s season with graphic imagery of a well loved character getting his/her (no spoilers here!!) head bashed in with a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat. Our reptilian brain is not able to distinguish fact from fiction - so our psyche FEELS the stress of this scene as though it were actually happening and will protect us by going into a flight or fight response. Eventually, with repeated exposure we become desensitized to the violence/gore/grief and will need an even MORE extreme scenario in order to actually feel an emotional response to what we are watching. Because the reptilian brain has no way of knowing what is real or isn’t, when we view something equally disturbing but it is real (images of war, poverty, destruction) - we are also desensitized to that as well. Stressing our minds with media causes a stress response that is real to our primitive mind. Our thinking brain can rationalize all it wants, but the physiological response to stress, the release of stress hormones happens when we are exposed to stressful images on television or social media.
Now think of the bombardment of media we have day in and day out - continuously. What is this doing to us? As we navigate through our lives, we are stimulated continuously. Gone are the days of rotary dial telephones, rabbit ears on televisions, children playing outdoors, and family game nights (you know, those fun evenings where someone inevitably gets pissed off and tips the board!). Replaced with endless notifications from cell phones, impossibly big screen tv’s with hundreds of channels and surround sound, children too afraid of killer clowns to play outdoors, and family sit around the tv while we snapchat our friends night. Snippets of information, continuous feeds, no real human connection. When was the last time you just sat down and had a long conversation without looking at your phone every 10 minutes?
Perhaps the conclusion in all of this is that I’m officially old. Lamenting days gone by. I completely get that this is where we are. This is what we’ve created. We’ve created a need for television that portrays rape in the name of entertaining us (West World, Game of Thrones), or that is exruciatingly violent (I’m looking at you, Negan). We created killer clowns, and Donald Trump. Where our attention flows, energy goes.
Where our attention flows.... energy goes.
Ahhhh..... yoga.
We need yoga.
Perhaps now, more than ever, in time the ancient yogis call the Kali Yuga. An age of spiritual decline that we are witnessing all around us right now. Greed, immortality, violence, fear, destruction - all symptoms of spiritual decline. Symptoms of a disconnection from Spirit. The yogis predicted this age to last for many more years to come, and I believe, rather pessimistically, that it will get worse. So, what can we do to live a healthy, full, connected life in the Kali Yuga? Enter Tantra. A practice for the age of spiritual decline. A practice rooted in the belief of non rejection, of allowing our darkness a seat at the table of our awareness. A practice designed to give us the tools, and spiritual grounding we need in the midst of the madness that surrounds us. Tantra teaches us that the Divine is in everything, including the darkness. That rejecting darkness is a rejection of Spirit. Tantra teaches us awareness, infused with practice and ritual. Tantra teaches us to be Still - so that we can be aware. So that we can act from LOVE instead of fear. Tantra teaches us to notice the subtle nuances of Being - to embrace every single part of it, and to enter into it all with equanimity and fearlessness.
Now is not a time for yoga to be extreme. Hot yoga? Just another symptom of needing extremes in order to just FUCKING FEEL SOMETHING. What about the subtlety of our breath? What about a simple inhale, raise the arms up, exhale, lower the arms down? What about a gentle inquiry into the why, what, and how of our habitual patterns and behaviours?
An essential practice of Tantra is hatha yoga. Hatha yoga includes the postures of yoga, breathing and meditation practices. The purpose of hatha yoga is to open the body energetically so that we have a free flow of energy in the subtle body, allowing the egoic states of mind that prevent us from realizing our true Self to dissolve. The embodied practice of yoga allows us to experience ourselves as a mind unified with the body. This dissolution of mind into body gives rise to Spirit. The essence of ourselves that is unchanging, constant and still. Yoga creates the space to experience STILLNESS. Stillness in the midst of the Kali Yuga. Stillness in the midst of information overload.
Yes! Given our day to day over consumption of information, asking someone to sit down and focus on the breath can be downright torturous. It seems like there are much better things to be doing, or much more interesting things going on than just the inhale and the exhale. But, it’s necessary, in order to cope - we need yoga. WE NEED YOGA.
We need to be conscious of our breath. We need to be conscious of our movements. We need to be still. We need to be quiet. We need to rest, with our eyes wide open so that we can See. We need Spirit. We need to return to this awareness, again and again. We need to remind ourselves that we CREATE our reality. We are the interface. Not the smartphone screen, or the like button.
You, alone.
Inside the quiet space of your mind.
Seated at the back of your head, accessed through a single conscious breath.
You.
Alone.
CREATE your reality.
Face it. There could be a killer clown right outside my window. Donald Trump isn’t going anywhere. I’m going to watch the rest of this season of The Walking Dead. My iphone is sitting beside me right now, and I have 7 tabs open on my browser. I’m simultaneously writing this blog, texting friends, trying to explain why I think Donald Trump is as much a part of the failed system as Hillary Clinton is to a Trump apologist on Facebook, and trying to motivate my media inundated 14 year old to spend more time studying and less time snap chatting.
The solution is not rejecting reality. The solution is practicing within it. Instead of having 7 tabs open, pick one and focus on it. Ignore the Facebook debate, it’s pointless, I can assure you. Spend time with your kids. They need you. Put down your phone and LOOK UP. Take a deep breath. Right now. We need yoga more than ever. Go to a yoga class. Turn off and tune in. Call up a friend, leave your phone at home and go out for coffee. Read a book. Drink a cup of tea. Look at a tree.
We need yoga more than ever.
We need yoga.
In a world full of Zombies.... we need yoga.
