era of identity, yoga of the now

On Friday, at Yoga 4 the People, we began with a hugging ceremony, during which everybody hugged everybody. 56 hugs exchanged. Then we did some unconventional wiggly-wave-downward dogs, and  funky-twisty-sun-salutations, and other arm-balancing acts that I’d never seen in yoga. Meanwhile, upbeat spunky chanting filled the room, coming from Pandora.com, which was set up on a laptop in the corner. Our teacher’s pink iPod had gone through the washing machine, so she put it on the edge of the room and told us to send it positive vibes. The room laughed, it was a laughing kind of room, and we stretched in good faith and clean sweat. I’m sure we healed that iPod.

Pedaling home after class, entirely relaxed and uplifted, I began to consider non-traditional yoga. It’s interesting how different yoga trends have skip-hopped off of older, classical ones, almost like trends in the art world bubble and unfold… From to Romanticism to Impressionism to Cubism to — you know the drift, and the way it keeps drifting. Of course, the principles of yoga will remain very much the same — calming the mind, body, spirit — but now we’ve got hip-hop yoga and yoga-for-dogs. Who likes the novelty? Who doesn’t?

I wonder if some people will always gravitate towards classical movements, and some will like the newer, funkier fashions. Do we all have an ‘era’ of identity that suits us? Partially due to our upbringing, sure. But I also think there’s something innate in our preference. Don’t you have a few friends who seem as though they belong beside Jane Eyre, and others who flash glimpses of the future at you? I do. I am not sure this is reflected in their exercise preferences so much as their mannerisms and values. And, on second thought, we probably all have doses of this, that and the other. One part traditional, two parts modern. Perhaps it’s good to constantly stretch these boundaries, to seek the balance of our existence, perhaps on our hands, on a yoga mat, in an era all our own.