Bikram Yoga Decatur

Sometimes I am hard put to describe exactly what it is that I value most about my yoga practice. The abundant psycho-physical benefits ought to be enough but there is clearly something more to it. I suppose it's what many refer to as the spiritual benefits but, as someone who doesn't subscribe to a literal spiritual belief system, that seems vague. Spirit, to me, speaks to the whole of human life including all the ways in which we relate to the world and each other. Spirituality suggests an infinite web of connections between beings, an energetic map of the whole of experience and awareness which extends beyond the self. On a more practical level my spiritual life is the reflection of my personal life as defined by my relationships with the other people in my family, community, society and the world at large (or vice versa). In that sense I get plenty of spiritual fulfillment in my life outside the yoga studio. Certainly it is expanded and enhanced by the community that exists in the studio. My life is greatly enriched by the relationships and connections that are constantly developing and evolving here. Still, there's something more immediately satisfying in my personal practice -- something tangible yet much greater than the obvious and numerous health benefits.

In Urban Cavemen (Living Life out of Balance) Mickey Z., writing for Dissident Voice, puts his finger on something. In it he writes,

We each possess a physiology that evolved to negotiate the Stone Age. Unfortunately, we live in the Space Age. There’s the rub. We are urban cavemen — overmatched in our daily battle to navigate an artificial reality because we have lost contact with our instincts [emphasis added].

Like most (if not all) of you, I spend a lot of my day in front of a computer (as now) or in my car, or on my phone and otherwise living in a virtual world of abstractions and ideas. I live more and more online and in my head. How can I not? It's how things work these days. I was born when things were different, when a child's life was still lived outdoors. The smells from my childhood are memories of moss and rocks, earth, rain and mud. I would walk for miles and hours and it was joyful travel. The toys and games I played with didn't have to be plugged in or re-charged. Everything has changed since then and mostly for the better. Computers and the internet have vastly increased our ability to communicate and learn. Technology is bringing people all over the globe into closer contact with each other. It's an exciting and fascinating time to be alive. But as we move more and more into this brave new virtual world, something is being left behind. Muscles unused atrophy and become unusable. Lack of exercise results in decreased bone density and muscle strength. "Use it or lose" isn't a cliche -- it's a recipe for good health. Astronauts can't do yoga in space -- they can exercise with machines but yoga requires gravity. Gravity (our local version) comes from the Earth.

When I practice yoga I feel like I'm re-establishing lost connections with primal elemental forces: air, gravity, energy, momentum. The feel of my heart pounding in my chest, the passionate drawing in of oxygen to the lungs, the rivers of sweat pouring out of me, the heavy pull of gravity, all these things make me feel more alive, more present in my body and in that time and space. In short, yoga brings me back to the Earth. As Michael Glabicki sings,

Hey yo' hey mama

Back to the Earth I feel it

Back to the Earth I'm fallin'