Happy Voting Day!!!!!
If you’ve listened long enough to this show, you know I am a semi-proud member of the woo club.
I’ve drunk the wheat-grass-flavored koolaid and donned the galaxy-themed stretchy pants and played joyous, studious & deeply-driven rounds of solo Twister on my little sticky mat.
For better or worse, I am a self-identified yogi.
But, as you also may know, I tend to want to throw up some caveats and barriers between me and that crowd.
Yogis as white, affluent, cis-gendered folks who achieve enlightenment through bettering their handstands.
Nope. Not it.
Yogis who, when confronted with the atrocity of gun-violence or police brutality or the proposed erasure of non-binary peoples, prefer to do a little slow-motion disco on their sticky mats, send light & love, and let some other, less spiritual being do the dirty work of confronting this icky bit of humanity.
Please don’t toss me in this bin.
Yogis who think it’s enough just to concentrate on elevating their own vibration as a way to make the world a better place.
Yogis who use practice as a way to retreat from the world and it’s problems rather than a way to arm ourselves to confront them.
Yogis who use spirituality as just one more consumer product they can buy, soak up, and then toss by the wayside as it suits them, spraying themselves in its’ ephermal mist and never letting its’ harder teachings penetrate the skin.
As you can see, I’ve got some beef with the current mainstream yoga culture, as it were.
So, it’s always a delight and a surprise when I come across someone who is using the practice to move counter to the culture.
Who is not so fixated on the perfect handstand, but, rather on using the physical practice to perfect their character, learn how to sit with the uncomfortable and confront injustice both inside themselves and in the world.
These are the types of conversations I love to have.
So, I was thrilled to have this talk with Carrie Ingoglia, an Ayurvedic Yoga Teacher, who is the writer and producer of the podcast Yoga For the Revolution. I say more about this inside the intro of the talk, so listen up for more details about that.
Carrie and I talked about carrying the practice beyond the mat, learning how to be uncomfortable and some of the people we look to in this world of the spiritual who are also doing real-world good, as well.
Far from a conversation with two polished, lifelong devotees & activists, what you are about to listen to is a real-life chat between two, heartfelt, imperfect women who are wanting to do better. Who are not always certain of what the next step is, but are willing to move into the gap, nonetheless.
Like the physical practice, it is always an invitation. To get quiet. To see where we are moving out of alignment - with our hearts, our beliefs and our calling. And to take steps - humble, daily, faltering ones - to move out into a better way forward.
For more on Carrie, her podcast and the other great work that she does, make sure to check the show notes. And, as always, if this chat has touched you in any way, and you want to add to the conversation, please make sure to leave a rating and review in iTunes.
And, of course, if you haven’t already, get out there and cast your ballot.
It’s not the be-all-end-all, of course for righting the wrongs of our culture.
Voting doesn’t buy us a free pass to go back to whatever-ing the other 364 days of the year, right?
But it’s a start.
