Yoga – inquiring within?By Jessica Powers
There was this gem that I used to pass on my walk into work, written in chalk on the a-board out from a local yoga studio that always flustered and upset me:
Healthy Yogi = Happy Yogi
Um, excuse me, isn’t my yogic happiness supposed to stem from overcoming my identification with my body? Happiness regardless of whether I’m healthy or not?
Aren’t I working to identify and then release my I-amness, my ahamkara? Haven’t you people read your Patanajali?
Right, okay. You are saying that life is better when we take care of our body. I get that. I just think it stinks to promote an activity designed to take us further than the body by equating the body to the whole person.
What if I am in an accident or develop an autoimmune disease? Am I excluded then from this happy yogi state because my body is compromised?
Health in the body is not entirely in my hands, even as I push them into the mat in down dog.
Indeed, as I push my hands down into the mat and lift up into wheel pose there is always a possibility that some fractional stress will hit its utmost point and I’ll collapse in pain, harmed by my health quest through yoga.
Where’s my happy then?
What about as I age?
In our society health equates to youth and youthfulness.
My hairs are coming in white and grey and up front. I’m not going to dye over them. And while I use sunscreen (almost religiously) and I love my eye cream (organic carrot coloured stuff that smells amazingly of chamomile) I am aware that there are more lines and creases each year.
My body is changing. It has more daily ouches and squeaks. It’s not young the way we think of young.
Okay, okay, I give. I get it. Maybe I’m just being picky.
I will let the equation of health and happiness pass. Easily done since the new owners came in and took away the chalkboard. (I guess they aren’t hipsters and don’t have time for Pinterest lessons on chalk handlettering.)
Now when I walk to work in the morning I giggle at this new, eternal a-board message printed on some material for shop displays and put out daily:
Yoga Classes Daily – Pick up a leaflet or inquire within
Really? Seriously?
Inquire within? Is that supposed to be sarcastic?
Sure, I’ll enquire within. With pleasure. However, I’ll do that at home in my pjs, wrapped up in the throw blankets off the couch as I roll around on the floor listening to what my body wants next. That’s my internal inquiry. Thanks anyhow.
Despite all that, can I just say how strong my urge is to “inquire within” this studio about the meaning of my life? Just like that.
Hi, your sign says to inquire within. My inquiry is this: what is my purpose in life?
Imagine the face on whatever lovely soul was working reception at a yoga studio to that interaction.
I giggle as I read the sign, imagining it all, walking fast because I’m probably running late. Embracing the giggle I realize this is why I have no yoga studio to call home.
Not only because I’m not interested in pushing physical limits and doing fancy-schmancy arm balances or ‘advanced’ poses.
It’s because what most yoga studios are selling is not for me at this time.
My years in yoga classes have taught me to make my home within. To listen there and respond to what I hear and see and feel.
The classes I have taken built my inner compass and my understanding that I am more than my body.
I am more than my name, my citizenship, my current address or job; more than my family expects me to be, and more than even my friends encourage me to be. I’ve become more than the yoga trainings I’ve taken, more than the religious paths I’ve explored, more than the dreams in my head.
Most of all I giggle because I can recall the wild love affair of yoga that led me here and I think of the students that will walk in that yoga studio door and pick up a leaflet to find out how to be healthier.
Thinking of them I wonder what they will come to see as happiness, and what they will hear whispering within themselves in the quiet space between breaths.
The journey has to start somewhere.
Mmmm…. what a disturbing “holier than thou” piece by Jessica. Unflatteringly self-absorbed. I don’t really understand what I am supposed to take from this piece. A fallible lesson in semantics? (Inquire, enquire…?) Sigh…
Thank you for taking the time to comment, Ajmaya. Perhaps any piece written from a stream of consciousness point of view is potentially going to come off ‘holier than thou’. This piece was simply inspired by an repeating brush in my neighborhood with something that usually only gets played out in relation to the very white, super sleek and fantastically bendy models of Yoga Journal, that is to say, the presentation and sale of yoga. I believe that there is a place to ponder, question, and challenge the advertising of yoga, even alongside the understanding that the path has many points and that the way yoga is presented to one person and offers them meaning is going to fall flat and feel like either old news or misconstruing to another person who is at a different point.
Hey Ajmaya,
Maybe there’s nothing to take from it for you. Some articles speak to us. Some don’t.
Sadly, what a load of self important , negative and judgmental hogwash posing as “deep and meaningful” . Were you especially hormonal when you wrote this ? Seriously, I am amazed this even got printed…..what a waste of space.
What was your purpose here ? Or, is it sour grapes you are feeling . That would make more sense.
…Without giving this a lot more energy……. it is already getting more than it deserves……. I gratefully attend the classes at that studio and it is mental , emotional, physical and spiritual health and integration that I get from going there…..and that , with a body that is literally decades older than yours with all its attendant imperfections.
Your assumptions are unexamined:
1.Your writing makes the assumption that the sign ” healthy yogi= happy yogi ” is referring to the body only…..Yoga and the definition true health both share the same emphasis, as you well know, on the integration of body, mind and spirit regardless of what state the body is in. You and only you, in this instance, identified the body as separate .. the sign didn’t….that’s YOUR interpretation and your projection and tells us only who YOU are.
I hope you can take this opportunity to truly ” inquire within ” and come to some greater clarity as to why you would waste your valuable energy into such negativity and then, furthermore actually make it public.
God Bless
Hey Sky,
I’m the editor of YLB, so the person that decided to publish this article. After reading your comment, I went back and re-read it a couple of times to see if I was missing anything.
Yes, Jessica does make the assumption that Healthy Yogi is referring to the body, rather than to mental, emotional, physical & spiritual health. However, she doesn’t make any comment on the content of the classes at the studio – just on the way that it was promoting yoga, which is a different thing. Jessica’s assumption that the sign was referring to the body makes sense, given how yoga is often portrayed in the mainstream media, and it gave her an opportunity to reflect on that.
Second, I found Jessica’s stream of thought musings on the meanings of the sign Inquire Within humorous – I thought she was making light of something while also drawing attention to one of the differences between home practice and class practice. Home practice does provide more space and opportunity to inquire within – something that yoga students often move to over time. She was seeing the irony in a sign suggesting that there were opportunities to Inquire Within at a yoga studio. Yes, there can be, but for Jessica at her stage in her practice, her opportunities lie at home. There is nothing wrong with that, just as there is nothing wrong with going to yoga classes.
Finally, as an editor, I found Jessica’s article interesting, thought-provoking and it made me inquire within. If you disagree with the content in her article, feel free to discuss the material with openness and curiosity. But there is no need to attack Jessica as a person, to put her down or attempt to shame her.
Sky’s comments are interesting, as are Ajmaya’s. I don’t see how you can say that her comments are a personal attack, or are putting her down etc, when Jessica’s comments are easily interpreted as “sour grapes”, critical and judgemental. Furthermore, Jessica should get her facts right before quoting. The sign actually said “Happy Yogi is a Healthy Yoga”, ( I know as I was visiting and took a photo of the cute studio, ) a moog point I know, and I am not going to delve into what this interpretation might mean, I’ll leave that to Jessica, she’s got that off to a tee.
I know of many Yoga teachers that haven’t read Patanjali, yet have let go of their Ahamkara, their I-Amness.
Jessica obviously has a way to go, having mentioned “I” over 40 times in her article.
I think what annoys me the most is how an innocent chalk board notice, obviously meant to be light, mildly humerous even, with no hidden agenda, probably not even meant to promote Yoga, just a comment, can be interpreted in this way and to stir up such baggage which this obviously did in Jessica, but to air this in public, mmmm.
Remembering back some 40 years ago, when I was barely a teenager, there was sign outside a “Physical Culture Club” inviting passers by to “inquire within” I did, not quite as sarcastically as Jessica’s musings mind you, but that enquiry put me on a path of self discovery through physical exercise which has given me good health ( and happiness ) over many years and through many different disciplines, including Yoga.
If the new “Eternal” A board made out of shop display material ( probably because it will last a lot longer that its rickety chalk board predecessor ) entices just one person to attend a Yoga class, and the first step to a healthier ( and maybe happier ) existence, then it will have done its job.
Hey Ananji,
The personal attack I was referring to was “Were you especially hormonal when you wrote this?”. Maybe that’s attack, maybe it’s not.
Yes, the chalk board was just a small thing – it’s only in being seen and filtered in a particular way that it becomes something else.
I’m curious about how this has all unfolded – the way that people have responded in comments. As you say, Jessica has some strong feelings about the way that yoga is often portrayed. My inclination is to allow her to be where she is and express how she’s feeling, maybe responding with compassion and understanding. But, again, as you say, is this the way Jessica has approached the article? Maybe not.
So we have an article writer getting upset about a thing, which then upsets other people who want to defend that thing, or say that she shouldn’t be upset about it, or if she is upset about it, she should deal with it in private and not make it public. I want to keep pulling back the layers, stripping it away, to see what’s going on.
Some people on the facebook comments said they found the tone difficult but agreed with many of the underlying ideas. What is tone? Is that the feeling sense of something – the hurt that lies underneath?
Hmmm… many things to ponder. Thanks Ananji for sharing your perspective on it all.
Hi again , To respond to your post Kara-Leah, I am guilty of responding like with like to Jessica’s article in my question with my question about her being hormonal I agree and I apologize for that The article angered me . I think what inspired me to post , which I never do anywhere , was the incredibly negative tone that came through in Jessica’s article . The article did in fact unfairly focus on one specific Studio’s communication with the public at large in an unwarrantedly critical and negative way . New Zealand is a small country town and many of your readers will know exactly which studio Jessica is lambasting via their signs…..
How damaging is that ?…
1…to the studios success in attracting students and
2…if her comments dissuade other potential students from making their first tentative steps into a class she is depriving them of the chance to have an important healing experience without offering them anything concrete in its place .
She then globalized her judgements to all yoga studios and their communications with the public as if “one is all ” which we all know is not
.Not kosher ! . …Just to quote one instance in her article ….quote “pushing physical limits and doing fancy-schmancy arm balances or ‘advanced’ poses. ”
How is this enlightening and uplifting to your readers ?
To quote her again….”It’s because what most yoga studios are selling is not for me at this time.”
Fair enough. It is not for her … Why then even bother to write this ?
She is not giving anyone the opportunity to practice with her ” at home ” or learn anything or grow The tone of implied superiority implies that somehow her home practice puts her ” above ” and gives her the right to look down on those who offer classes which she probably at one time herself attended in order to even have a home practice … Poor taste really and I know she is better than that
After all is said and done I still don’t understand what the purpose of the article was . Cheers
Hey Sky,
Thanks for taking the time to come back and respond. It really helps the discussion and I appreciate it. It helps me to be more aware of considerations I may need to make as an editor.