Practicing Yoga and Social Justice

In the aftermath of the election, I started rereading the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the fundamental books for the philosophy of yoga and the hindu religion. But you don’t have to practice yoga or become a hindu devotee to see its applicability to our current moment. The Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue between two characters – Arjuna and Krishna. Arjuna is a young warrior who is compelled to go into a just war against neighbors, friends and relatives to combat unjust rule. Right before the battle begins, he is overcome with fear, sadness, reluctance and sits down on the battlefield, unable to go on. God – Krishna - appears to him in the form of his chariot driver and they commence a discussion about the importance of fighting an injustice and doing one’s duty. In the course of the dialogue, Krishna lays out the basic principles of living a good life, and entering into the moment with courage, leaving fears behind. I’ve read this book in the past, but typica...

It's been a crazy week - for the world and for me personally - so I don't have a theme or particular idea to explore. There have been beautiful moments and very dark sad moments. I was in Washington, DC on Wednesday when the first round of EOs on immigration were released. I spent a couple of hours at the White House protest on Wednesday night, along with a beautiful, diverse community who took over the street and chanted about love and support and connectedness. We heard from immigrants - why they came here, their hopes and dreams for themselves and family, why they were willing to risk so much to occupy the street and tell their stories. Then I went to Miami for 1 1/2 days to meet with labor and community leaders. It was beautiful to see the shared conviction that this is not our country, these are not our values. The desire to step up to support immigrants facing deportation. Then on Friday afternoon the EO barring refugees and migrants from targeted countries. It is hea...

There’s a lot in the philosophy of yoga about not being disturbed by dualities. It’s an important result of a good practice, and it is one we’re going to need more of in the coming weeks/months/years. It feels to me like a time when we need to hold certainty and curiosity both at once. Certainty – because Donald Trump is not only violating the basic standards of democracy but trying to tell us he’s not. Because authoritarianism can creep up on you when you adjust to incremental moves that limit our democracy. Because we might start believing in “alternate facts” if we don’t hold tightly to the certainty that what we know, what we saw, what we heard is reality. And then there’s the need for curiosity, which assumes maybe we aren’t certain, maybe we don’t know everything. I’ve been thinking about curiosity a lot ever since the election. I had huge flashes of anger and resentment at the people who voted for Trump right after, but pretty quickly that dissipated and instead...

As one of my contributions to our collective effort to survive this time, I am periodically offering a free 10 minute guided meditation on my blog. 10 minutes because everyone can find 10 minutes in their day to do something that sustains you and increases your positive impact on the people around you. And because research shows that even 10 minutes of meditation can improve your brain functioning - and make you feel better. There are dozens of meditation apps and sources out there. I don't claim mine is anything better than what you find could elsewhere. But two things might make your experience of these guided meditations unique. First, if you have attended any of the leadership retreats where I offer a mindfulness practice, you may find that listening to these guided meditations connects you to the retreat experience and allows you to renew the feelings of connectedness and power you had there. Second, many of my guided meditations will have a social justice element that conne...

Resistance is beautiful. If you’ve gone to any of the protests this week or ever before you know this is true. Resistance involves beautiful art, creative word play, music, community. It involves people coming together to articulate shared values and vision for how our society could be. It usually involves people taking huge risks to share their hopes and dreams for the future – people who risk more than most of us could imagine just to speak it aloud. And when they face their fears and take those risks, they inspire all of us to grow beyond the limited scope of fear and stand up for ourselves and those around us. I forgot how much I love resistance.  You know there is joy in resistance, but something I realized this week: joy is an act of resistance. If you’re reading my blog you know the last few months have been hard. I have been in a fog of grief and fear. I have let the spectre of what could be dominate my experience of what is . I realized t...

When I wrote about complaining last week, I was really thinking about a constant engagement in the analysis of our political moment that could condition our brains to miss out on the beautiful moments, the caring kindness, the community building. I wasn’t thinking about the normal everyday complaining of normal everyday life. But then my friend Anne-Marie wrote about it in her blog and then without intending to, I began to notice my own complaining. I generally think of myself as someone who doesn’t complain much but wow is that wrong! A lot of my complaining has to do with travel. Rare is the week that I do not get on a couple of airplanes, and all the lines, security, being in airports, cramming into a small space with a couple of hundred people – it brings many invitations to complain. I started to notice myself having complaining thoughts, even if I don’t always voice them. Complaining is a deep expression of ego. It is a statement of me, mine, my needs, my c...

Yoga is the path of action. The yoga sutras are very clear about that – there are many paths to enlightenment but the path we tread is a path of action. We seek the realization of the self and divinity through discipline, study and devotion. Every part of that is important – we have to be diligent and disciplined to overcome any obstacles. We have to study to understand what is happening and be able to see where we go wrong and how to correct it. And we do it with love and devotion because it is a not a self-interested path even though it is about transcending our own suffering. I’m saying all of this because right now is the time for action out in the world. Yoga gives us a lot of tools for personal transformation, but I also believe it tells us something about transforming our world, changing systems, realizing justice. I haven’t quite connected all the dots to explain why and how it does that, but that is part of why I’m writing this blog – to have a space to figure it ...

I haven't posted in a few days because of the whirlwind of being back at work. But also because I've had the blues. I didn't notice the blues at first because of the whirlwind. There's flying to DC. Missing out on sleep because of how my commute works. Being in this building one block from the white house. Arriving on Tuesday with nothing on my calendar and then by Friday seeing every minute filled with meetings and projects. And every day, every single day, engaging with the reality of what is happening. I've been in meetings where people talked about the federal legislative plan for January and how we will participate. I've been in meetings where we talked about what is happening at the state level. It is all so much to take in.  Aside - people who are know how bad for working people is the Trump victory may not realize how much ground we also lost in many of the states. Which means that alongside every federal action, we will see a raft of state actions tha...

This post is a love letter to Rebecca Solnit. Every once in awhile I read something and immediately wish I had written it myself. After Rebecca Solnit’s article in the Guardian gave me such insight, I settled down to read Hope In the Dark and I immediately wished I had written it. Not just for the calming, soothing, meditative way of writing. Not just for the clarity of vision and insight it displays. But also because of the whole body of life experience it represents. In the early 2000s, I was a regular attendee at the Quaker meeting in Milwaukee. I remember a particular meeting after 9/11 when someone started spontaneously singing the hymn “Balm in Gilead.” I didn’t know the song but others did and they joined in.   The first few lines had an immediate effect on me: There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole . The words and music and the setting together created its own kind of balm for me and I’ve always thought of that song and that moment when something...

An interesting thing that happens when you are really engaging with the deeper philosophy of yoga. I'm sure it happens for people who pray deeply and study christian scriptures, or have other religious or spiritual practices. Whatever it is you focus on - suddenly you see it everywhere around you. If you start reflecting on, focusing on truthfulness, then you will find that every day some message comes to you about the importance of being truthful, the benefits, the techniques. This is what is happening to me with cleanliness. Everywhere I look I see some reminder, some new emphasis. It's really gratifying - it's like being fed the very thing you actually need to eat. Somehow this article came across my computer screen - facebook or otherwise. It's written by a neuroscientist and talks about how complaining rewires your brain to make you complain more. I think this basically true about anything you do or any practice of thought - your brain adapts to make it easier...

One thing that has happened for me in December is that my practice has really flourished. It's weird to be having a deepening of spirituality at a time when the outside world is in crisis. Actually maybe that's not weird at all. I keep recalling the line from Rebecca Solnit's article I mentioned yesterday - "In easy times we grow slack." I wouldn't necessarily say recent times have felt easy, but in retrospect everything pre-2016-election feels easy. Because of the depths of my own disappointment and despair, I have had to get up every day and be very intentional about doing something to try to tackle it. Sitting meditation, yoga, other kinds of exercise. The motivation is powerful - I am honestly doing yoga right now to survive. Maha mudra is one of the poses that has helped me the most. After the election I experimented with what yoga I could manage. Even though fatigue would suggest some head down forward bends, I had too much anxiety to sit still. Meanwh...