I have written many guest posts in my short blog career but I have yet to have a guest on my blog. So I proudly present my very first guest post written by the beautiful Lavinia. We met on twitter (where else?) and it was honestly love at first tweet. Where I am sassy, she is sassier. Where I am fiery, she is fiery-er. And I love her all the more for it. Blogging all the way from London town, I like to think of her as my English half.
To all those who know me, I reckon they would agree that I am pretty much a happy bunny. I don’t have any massive issues, I enjoy a good laugh and I always endeavour to see the lighter side of life. All in all, this makes for a very conducive and fertile internal environment for my yoga practice to take root and flourish. Nothing makes me happier than some kirtan singing following a great mat practice or putting the needs of someone I love before mine and seeing them happy.
However, there are moments when life throws you the odd curveball and you find yourself totally rattled out of your om-bubble and you just lose it. It can be a difficult colleague with a sharp tongue, a snide remark or just the little trigger you need to set you off after a trying week. But before that happens, the wiser being in you lets you know that you are often faced with two choices.
a. Either you explode and let it rip….
b. Or you swallow it down like a bitter pill, take a deep breath and rise above it. You should be the bigger man.
Well, because of my impulsive nature, I often find myself practicing the former. I often conveniently ditch everything I have learnt to indulge the inner gremlin in me. Why should I let person X get away with XYZ, if he/she can give me all that sass, I am just as entitled to give it back!
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| In Yo’ Face! |
This post in particular is informed by a recent personal experience with an awfully unreasonable woman with whom I had the misfortune of having to deal with recently. I tried to keep my cool when reasoning with her but when you have someone else screaming down the other line making unfounded remarks and trying to bully you into a corner, it is really hard to keep your center. Needless to say my blood pressure was through the roof. Why does real life and the occasional real A-hole have to harsh your day-to-day mellow? If only we could all spend our days drinking herbal teas and sharing yogic anecdotes…
I used to feel like abit of a hypocrite following a mini blow-up or tantrum because most of the time I try and live my yoga. On many occasions have I looked back on my actions, however legitimate they might seem at the time, and wondered if this other Mr Hyde side of me had any place within the grander scheme of my journey to be a better person. Sometimes this self-reflection would lead to feelings of guilt and self-loathing; my perception of the yogi I would like to be is of someone who can always experience bliss and happiness in the face of any bad energy.
However, I have recently come around to the thought that before we are Yogis, we are human beings. We are not perfect and we are fallible. We are prone and entitled to bad days, tantrums and feeling out of sync with our selves. Even the best of us are susceptible to a little hissy fit every now and again.
Other times, this Mr Hyde side may not be so bad after all. When mindfully applied, you just don’t mess with the yogi. Just because we yogis would rather share massive namaste-love with everyone, does not make us pushovers. We yogis have cahones. They are the same cahones that have us coming up against ourselves everytime we get on the mat, so trust us when we say we are good at being grounded and pushing back. It is difficult times when I feel pushed or cornered that I am glad I have my Mr Hyde side who would come up occasionally to the rescue and stand up for me when I need him most.
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| ‘I’ve been told I’m really funny’ |
So yes, we yogis do go ‘Kaboom’ every now and again but also, as Yogis we are also students and we are always learning.
#EvenYogisGoKaboom is a thread on twitter inspired by the wonderful @yoga_mydrishti at http://flyingyogini.wordpress.com
Lavinia is a 23 yr old yogi currently living in gloriously grey London. Her true loves in life are movies, food and yoga. When she’s not busy being a movie geek or raiding the fridge, she can be found on her mat practicing her darth vader ujjayi breath. Her favourite film is the exorcist and the yoga pose she shares the biggest love/hate relationship with is wheel. You can check out her yoga related ramblings at omlala.blogspot.com
March 30th, 2011 at 3:01 am
What a great post! I love that you said that we are always learning! So true!
March 31st, 2011 at 11:57 am
love it! thanks for the shout out!!