I was raised in a religious tradition that not only frowned upon yoga, it demonized it. Yoga was evil and if you participated in yoga, you would be opening yourself up to demon possession. Chakras were evil. Horoscopes were evil (never mind that the so called “wise men” found Jesus by reading the stars). It was all evil. All bad. All demonic.
And I bought into those absurdities, hook line and sinker. So much so that when one of our children was in middle school, I forbade said child from participating in PE when the class was doing a unit on yoga. I even showed my natural brown behind when the teacher suggested giving said child something to do other than yoga. Completely convinced my child would need an exorcist if they were anywhere near the going on of yogic activity, I demanded they be nowhere near the practice and demanded the teacher place my child far outside the room away from the activity. My child, in all of their compliant, mercy prone ways never pushed back on my absurdity (at least not vocally to me, that I recall).
Fast forward a whole lot of years later, that child is an adult, and I am being invited by Spirit to hand over everything I ever believed to be true about God and allow those beliefs to be sifted and myself to be gifted back what is true. One year into this divine exchange, Spirit asked me to learn to love my body the way I had learned to love my soul and my spirit. And truthfully, I had no idea how to do that. I have always hated my body, struggled severely with eating disorders and never learned to move beyond a critical stance to what i saw in the mirror. Suffice it to say, I needed help. So, I asked for Spirit’s guidance and was gifted three invitations: 1) the word, “Breathe” which led me to learning about breath work 2) Mindful Meditation and 3)Yoga
Can you believe that? Spirit actually suggested yoga (which means holy union) to me. And, even though Spirit had led me to yoga to reconnect with my disembodied self, the first time I got on my yoga mat, I expected something bad to happen. I also felt this way the first time I ever stepped foot in a Catholic Church two months ago (which we were also taught was demonic). I had been conditioned to believe a certain way and had never questioned those conditions.
I had been handed a belief system, an ideology based on someone else’s experiences and fears. I hadn’t been given the opportunity to develop my own concepts around yoga, chakras, or being guided by the stars, much less the Catholic Church or LGBTQIA. I’d merely been told, if you’re a Christian, these things are evil. And as a good mom, I wanted to protect my kids from that evil and gift them the “salvation” of Christianity. Sounds noble, right? I mean what’s so wrong with protecting yourself and your family from demons?
Nothing, except I was living a constructed reality based on misinformation. I didn’t know that the fathers of Eastern and Western religion had excommunicated one another, and Western religion would go on to “demonize” Eastern religious practices. Nothing wrong with yoConquest of Guinea) to Madison Grant’s, The Passing of the Great Race and beyond, the truth is there for us to see...if we want to wake up and show up.
All we know is what we’ve been told. How we order and shape our lives all continues to exist around what we know as “our truth”. Could it be possible that there are some things you’ve believed to be true, that aren’t really true at all? Could it be possible that the truth, like life in its complexities, has several layers? Are you willing to take another look, read a different book?
I was wrong about yoga, chakras, the Catholic Church, LGBTQIA. I was wrong to choose a belief over a person. Will I continue to turn a blind eye to the ways I’ve been wrong or will I allow waking up to my own complicity guide me into seeing new truths? How will your complicity lead you to act?
No comments:
Post a Comment