Last night as I was getting my four-year-old daughter ready for bed, we were chatting about various things and I asked her if she was excited for her “special grama and grampa time” on Nantucket.
She and her ten-year-old sister, Madison, are headed to the island to spend some quality time with their grandparents for three nights.
“So and so comes from a long lineage of yoga instructors…”
When I read or hear this, a few things come to mind.
“Wow, how nice for that person—that they had yoga in their life from day one or even while in utero. Rock on. I’m happy for them that they were blessed to be born into that “lineage.’”
What also comes to mind is how not always, but sometimes, this statement/fact can be used as a type of exclusion. A type of “I’m a ‘better’ yogi than you and there’s nothing you can do about it because it’s in my genes and my ‘lineage’ and it’s not in yours.”
Just another form of exclusion, arrogance, and ego–wrapped up in yoga mat and scented with incense.
But it still smells bad to me.
I can see this kind of stuff a mile away and it reminds me of some of the clinical work I did while working toward my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
Occasionally I would observe clinicians playing this card, the “lineage” card. To me what it said to every psychologist who hadn’t been so blessed with “lineage” was: “Sorry, kid. No matter how much you study, how hard you work, how committed you are, how wonderful you are with clients, how talented you are and how much you love this work, you’ll just have to wait till the next lifetime because you don’t have ‘lineage.’”
So even in helping professions and/or the world of yoga, exclusion and arrogance can rear their ugly heads and keep people from simple truth.
The simple truth is that everyone is a yogi and yoga simply means union.
Your yoga might look different than my yoga, but everyone can practice yoga daily and it will help them come back to their center and remember who they are, so that they can walk through the world with integrity and grace.
Your yoga might be gardening, reading quietly, going for a walk in nature, or baking apple muffins.
My yoga is asana in a heated room every single day…and this asana is for everyBODY. Not just the flexible. Not just the young. Not just the thin. Not just those donning Lululemon clothing.
Every single day I tell someone—at Trader Joe’s or Wholefoods or the park or our ten-year-old daughter’s elementary school—this yoga is for YOU…just show up and get on your mat and do your best with breath. That’s it!! You’ll feel so good.
Whether you have “lineage” or not.
