fbpx
Joga from Thailand

Ever since I learned to read (especially when I started getting into *chapter books*) I loved to constantly rotate though several books at a time, my wavy non-linear brain excited to excel at the task of keeping multiple plots and countless characters straight as I jumped from story to story.

My dad has a giant imagination, and that combined with the amount of time I spent with my mind in fantastical, far away places through what I was reading resulted in a childhood romanticized through my sparkly rose-colored glasses. I went on to study & graduate in English (so I could keep reading) and I’ve continued my obsessive reading habit ever since.

Over the past year or so, I’ve picked up a new genre I like to call fairy smut (or fantasy romance, if we’re being proper) and let me tell you, it has swept me away to a magic la la land with more stardust than I’ve ever seen. I’m currently re-reading one of my top favorites (A Court of Silver Flames, by Sarah J. Maas) and part of it is talking about these super badass female fairy warriors creating a Valkyrie fighting unit — and to train, they do yoga.

The descriptions of the postures, movement, and meditations of these Valkyries is beautiful, but one phrase I just read made heart explode with starlight: the point of it all is to go “from seated calm to active soothing.” To go from sitting in calm awareness in a controlled, safe environment — to active soothing on the battlefield. That struck me as a big giant HELL YES! That’s the point of it all, ya know? To take these mindfulness techniques — the breathing, the awareness, the introspection — and use them to improve the quality of our lives: from seated calm, to active soothing.
Because if that’s not happening, then what’s the point? My firm belief is that if your yoga practice isn’t improving the quality of your life, then it’s just entertainment. And there’s nothing wrong with entertainment — but just know that there is so much more! There are endless possibilities, other worlds of magic and fantasy and love that you can access if you choose. Use your yoga practice as a portal to countless other realms of exploration so that it becomes a lifelong practice, a journey of creating the reality of your dreams.
xoxo,
 

Brittany