Leave your politics out of YOGA!

Woke up to this Trump voter screaming at me over the interwebs the other day. 🤦‍♀️ Sorry, Karen. I will not.

First of all: Yoga IS political.

Any teacher who tells you otherwise doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Waaaay beyond a workout, yoga is an ethical system, a spiritual discipline, a way of being in the world grounded in compassion and non-violence and the reality of interdependence.

When you really practice this sh*t, when you realize it’s so much more than just stretching, when you let these radically-loving yogic ethics pervade your every breath, then of *course* it’s political.

And, honestly, that’s why there are so few yoga teachers who’d really vote for Donald Trump or support imperialist war or condone the recent violence against trans kids in Texas and gay folks in Florida.

Many (most?) of us vote blue. 🗳 Because those very ethics of compassion and non-violence and interdependence make it clear the Christofascist lens of the modern-day GOP is completely incompatible with a yogic way of being.

Second: girl, it’s a free yoga class. On YouTube. Where there are six million other free classes you could take instead.

So if my politics turn you off, close the window. Click away. 🤷‍♀️

Or even better, stay awhile, and see if you can learn a thing or two about the meaningful, life-changing Eastern philosophy that’s behind all this bendy stuff to begin with. ✌🏼

There’s a better way

As an American living abroad, I am rarely patriotic — more often ashamed — and GUNS are one of the main reasons why. 😔

They’re also why we were so eager to leave.

Back in 2018, with my son approaching kindergarten age, the local Massachusetts school district he was due to attend went viral for teaching their kindergarteners to hide from active shooters to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

WTF. 🤬😤 (She says in the most yogic of righteously-angry ways.)

I don’t know what it will take to get the GOP out of the NRA’s pocket. I don’t understand how politicians can just turn away from children being slaughtered in schools.

I do know there’s a better way — a life without the fear of gun violence. We’re living it here. And while there are plenty of things about Switzerland, and Europe, that are far from perfect, I’ll take it if it means we don’t have to worry that our beloved babe will be shot in school.

Bless every soul lost to American gun violence. May they be free from suffering. May they know peace. 💔

Artist: @nikkolas_smith