As many of you know, and some may not, I just took my first vacation in years. It was a wonderful gathering of my family for a big Indian wedding in Vancouver, British Columbia.
I was able to spend quality time with a lot of family that I haven’t seen in years. While talking to them, I was asked to share my Ayurvedic Inflammation Consult. I did so, in a Denny’s--you can’t make this stuff up 😊
I told them about being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2017 and how that rocked my world (not in a good way). And, they asked me, point blank, if I was doing yoga and utilizing Ayurveda, then how come I got this disease? Family, they don’t let you hide or slither away from anything.
My response? I got this disease because I was “doing” yoga and not “living” yoga. And, a perfect illustration of this is when blue door’s Ayurveda doc, Aparna, told me she thought I had RA and needed to see a rheumatologist; the first words out of my mouth were, “I can’t have RA. I do yoga.” That, ladies and gentleman, says it all. I thought that because I was immersed in the yoga world, I had some type of force field that protected me from everything. But, going through the motions of yoga and Ayurveda is not going to save you from imbalance. You have to LIVE them.
Yoga is not a time of day, it is not a posture, it is not taking a few minutes to meditate and do breath work. Yoga is, how do you react when an uncomfortable situation arises? How do you find balance, internally, when the external world is trying to make you lose your footing? How do you show up as yourself (Self with a capital S) in every situation? This is what yoga and Ayurveda are teaching us. They’re not easy. They’re not an unrolling of your mat. They’re not doing Sun Salutations in the morning. They’re not adding ghee to your coffee. All of this helps. But if you are not living your truth, you’re not living yoga, you’re just doing yoga.
Thank you to my family (and my students) for keeping it real.
Xx
Jesi
댓글