This I believe

Read to me today by a yoga teacher:

I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing, or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated, precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which come shape of achievement, the sense of one’s being, the satisfaction of spirit. One becomes in some area an athlete of God. Practice means to perform over and over again, in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

Try this at home, kids

Do you know one thing I think is great about yoga?

I see people doing crazy things, and can tell they do yoga too.

Like in the very cool, under-appreciated Shakira "She Wolf" video, which has lots of shots like this:

I don't just see this and think, ooo weird, or, ooo sexy. I think, ah-HA Shakira does yoga! (You also have the line in the song that goes, "The moon's my teacher/ And I'm her student.")

And like with Lady Gaga's infinitely, infinitely watchable Bad Romance video. I see this:

and I don't have to think dismally, Damn she is so skinny....how is she so skinny...they must be photoshopping this. I know she's doing uddiyana bandha, a yoga breath posture where you basically breathe out fully, pull your stomach inwards, and raise up your ribcage and your perineal floor (your 'down theya,' if you will). It's good to practice this in the 'umpire' position and engage the throat lock jalandhara banda - put your chin down to 'lock' the air out. Basically anyone can look like this- they just have to know how! And anyways, it's no secret that Lady Gaga does yoga- she's a self-described Bikram addict.

So that's why this is one thing I love about yoga. It makes me think yoga is geology of the body- you learn the rules of how and why things take a certain physical shape, and therefore you can better understand them when you see them. Strata for humans...metamorphic, not sedimentary...

In this posture, or asana, you can tell that I am practicing self-timer mode on my camera: