When I teach Hatha flow, I offer various options while moving through the sequence. The movements flow with transitions to help connect postures while preparing the body in various ways for upcoming postures. In the picture – this is a transitional move that evolves from a high lunge aka crescent lunge and will return to high lunge. “Stay in the lunge or straighten the front knee and balance. Stay here. Or, for a challenging balance, add a high lift backbend with arms by ears.” I encourage students to find that place that meets their edge, which is different for everyone since not only is there physical awareness, but mental exercise as well. And I always wish to make sure that each option evolves from a solid place so it feels like a natural extension of the pose versus jumping in at 100% risk.
What might be useful when being in a space where options are given, is that we learn where and how the body/mind can move and flow. We experience how our unique body and over-stimulated mind can decipher a way to express a pose – sometimes to a lesser or greater version than we’d imagined! And whether we can meet what we see or we explore with creativity to make a posture/experience accessible, the challenging balance of listening to the ego mind and the expansive, creative mind/heart is a useful practice for self awareness.
It recently occurred to me that this is how I’m moving into taking action around our divided country and world. My process has been a rather slow, thoughtful one based on my years as a visual and movement artist, self-acknowledged wounded healer, Yoga practitioner and entrepreneur. I also include the journey of my Jewish ancestry and upbringing in finding my voice to speak out today for Palestinian liberation. As an American Jew, I am aware that the dominant voice that comes from our political leaders as well as from many Jewish institutions, does not speak for me. “Not in our name” is a major slogan used to signal that not all Jewish voices are supporting Israel and its leaders. Many Jews of the diaspora are demanding the end of the genocide in Gaza and fully understand the propaganda machine that Netanyahu and fellow corrupt Israeli and world leaders are operating.
I’ve been channeling my learning/unlearning/relearning into organizational work with IfNotNow, a national organization of American Jews who understand that Palestinian liberation is intertwined with Jewish liberation. I could never have made this leap had I not first researched Middle East history, talked with Palestinians and listened earnestly to Israeli historians. I could not have become an activist without first being willing to take a stand on something I firmly believed as truth. This would have been impossible to do had I remained attached to the childhood and young adult stories I was clinging to and if I wasn’t able to disconnect my Jewish values from my Jewish fears.
To get to this place, it had to happen in stages, just like moving into a Yoga pose. Quick personal Yoga fact: It took me years to return to Yoga after my first class somewhere around age 23 or 24. I disliked Yoga at first. It made me too aware of how inflexible I was and my ego didn’t know how to surrender. I finally returned with desperation after a back injury. I was willing to reconsider its benefits and well, the rest is history. To hear some of the views that have been contrary to my Hebrew day school years, Jewish upbringing, Israeli friends and fellow Zionist American Jews, required a major workout to recognize the difference between Judaism and Zionism – I thought they were inseparable! I thought I had to balance these as one. But they are distinctly in opposition. I wouldn’t have been able to reach a place of understanding had I not first been willing to challenge a few simple things I’d been taught.
For example, the phrase, “A land without a people for a people without a land” was propagated by Zionists at the turn of the 20th century, to build the story that Palestine did not exist. We were made to believe it was all barren land and we, exiled Jews came and made it beautiful after the horrors of the holocaust. It was a moment that finally, Jews were recognized and seen as people worthy of a “promised land” and it wasn’t ever going to be taken away. We had been the victim of all victims across centuries. I don’t erase these stories, but I also do not justify killing as a way to seek balance and justice – this is part of the ten commandments in the Torah (Hebrew name for the old testament) . We are taught that this is our homeland even though it is said in the Torah that we are forbidden to claim a land and will only have our promised land when the Messiah comes. Some have claimed that they are the Messiah of course, but I think this is another attempt at man playing G-d. (Helpful discussion on judaism.stackexchange.com with points given that I can happily challenge for anyone interested.)
Palestine 1920: The Other Side of the Palestinian Story | Al Jazeera World Documentary
https://youtu.be/QUCeQt8zg5o?si=7WlCAcQw29cGL-fQ
Getting into a challenging balance that holds understanding and reason for all that has brought us to this day, is well, a challenge. And to imagine getting here if you haven’t prepared the mind to dismantle a carefully guarded story will likely lead to rejection of thought. It’s too big of a leap to make if there is no groundwork. Just like jumping into a difficult Yoga pose. It could cause injury and make someone never want to try going there again. So to be open to moving towards a more challenging view, it’s important to prepare with some nuanced perspective of industrialized evolution and how it always favors supremacy. We have plenty of examples of colonization which have occurred on every continent (education.cfr.org) for a stark highlight of material-based human nature. It’s sobering. It’s humbling. It offers some understanding into how we got where we are and how, like a runaway train, it may not be stoppable without heroic might!
What Cory Booker did to shake things up on the senate floor from Monday to Tuesday night was a radical exercise for his body/mind/spirit. What a challenge to balance his energy, and he didn’t use the restroom, sit, or take a break away from the floor! It was a strategic move to put himself in a position for us to understand what a single person can do and what we must recognize is in our hands as a nation. I am inspired by what he did and grateful that this can make major news.
History has a clear message that speaking up and resisting those who are working hard to oppress a people is our path to justice. Whether you speak up as an artist like Mackelmore in concerts and as the executive producer of The Encampments, or within your own circles of influence, what we say matters. Our leaders who’ve become drunk with power aren’t in a position to think any differently. Just as you can’t reason with someone drunk on alcohol. These addicted leaders have been putting their power and energy into a pose of domination. So this also becomes an interesting lesson on a challenging balance of holding power with responsibility.
Some of us love a challenge. Some prefer to stay safe and stick with what is known or given by a dominant voice. Oftentimes, where you gather your news tells a lot about how you stand – Do you gather all of your news from main TV channels, local newspapers which are largely funded by wealthy families or billionaires (ABC News – The Walt Disney Company. Fox News – Murdoch family. Washington Post – Jeff Bezos)? Or is your preference, NPR, Democracy Now!, independent media (trustworthymedia.org) and local journalists? For those of us that love a challenge, we may be more open and ready to move through a complex heart/mind process to experience something more thoroughly examined. For those who prefer to stick with known or dominant messaging might feel complete without understanding a story that’s likely one-sided and missing perspectives and missing on purpose. Life can get so busy, filled with distractions – who has time to dig through to figure out who’s telling the truth?! We trust those who might be banking on their version of truth and it’s a tricky yellow brick road to travel.
Now, this is just one example by way of using my personal Hatha practice. It is not to compare postures as better or worse or that someone who can do more complex postures will always be the one who can challenge their mind. I’ll have done a disservice to Yoga and to my teaching if I’ve painted that picture. I offer no absolutes here since our minds can be the biggest tricksters. So it’s a personal journey to come to fully understand the collective journey in the way where we bring benefit to some and intend no harm to others. Even to write this, it’s been a challenging balance! My hope was to encourage all of us to explore the place where we feel some challenge but also still feel some grounding. Where we meet what we feel is our edge while still feeling safe. Where we accept that we will all have a unique journey while the common experience is to become more compassionate with self and others. Where we welcome challenges for the sake of growth when called, and we rest and accept things right as they are when we know we need to.
Let’s stay connected,
Marc
