Yoga Teacher Training Week 2: DIY Magic

So yesterday in Yoga Teacher Training I learned that modern “yoga,” the physical practice I’ve been doing for thirty years, with certain poses flowing into each other, moving, is something kinda rooted in something ancient, but mostly not. It’s its own thing, it’s newish, like this century. And, I think I got this right, it’s kinda rooted in stuff that started in India over a couple thousand years ago, but what we’re all doing these days is mostly a Western creation. So it’s a newish Western thing.

Ok. In some ways I find that incredibly liberating. Like there’s no magic right way to get to if I get really serious and dedicated about this stuff. And in some ways it’s incredibly disappointing. Because there’s no magic right way to get to if I get really serious about this stuff.

Like, WTF I thought these shapes had some kind of ancient wisdom in them and if I got really great at them, figured it out, THEN I’d be ... something. Something cooler than I am, more at peace, more all-knowing, more different.

Nope. Here it is again: there’s no magic someone else can give me. I gotta be my own magic. Crap. And, alrighty then. I’m gonna keep going.