A lot of places around town have been popping up with Yoga and Beer or Yoga and Wine classes. Here at the Blue Lotus we don’t offer those and we won’t offer those for one simple reason. Yoga is practiced to become healthier in body and mind so that we may focus the mind into clarity. I realize this post may come across as sounding condescending or elitist and I promise you that is not my intention, nor my attitude. Let me explain.
In the West (here) Yoga has come to mean something that feels good and is relaxing or athletic or some combination of both. That was not yoga’s original purpose or intention. The goal of yoga practice was to see the truth clearly. Full stop. Asana or physical practice of yoga poses was meant as an adjunct to the more central practices of yoga which were meditation, concentration, contemplation and reflection. Yoga was not part of any particular religion but was a set of practices used by many different religions towards the same goals – bringing clarity to the mind so that the truth of reality could be perceived directly.
Drinking alcohol is in direct contradiction to these goals. Alcohol is a depressant which dulls the senses and who hasn’t done something they later regretted when they were drinking because they WEREN’T SEEING CLEARLY??? AMIRITE? 😉
One argument I hear regularly is “Well, if it gets them to come to yoga, it’s okay.” Hmmm, that logic does not hold for me. Would you advertise a nutrition and weight-loss class by saying there will be all-you-can-eat donuts served? Whatever gets them to come, right? Or would you advertise an alcoholics anonymous meeting by saying beer will be served? Would you advertise a compassionate touch class by saying “We will start the lecture by boxing each other?” These things just don’t make sense. The true meaning of yoga has been lost here when we say “Beer and Yoga,” and no one bats an eye. The class is truly as contradictory as the others I described, if not more.
Is your goal to transmit the teachings of yoga or to get a bunch of people into your class? While of course we want people to attend so we can keep the doors open and make some money, I’m not willing to bend the teachings of yoga to the will of the masses just to get people in the door.
Here at the Blue Lotus we do not decline to offer a class like this because drinking beer or wine is wrong. We do so because we are committed to the true teachings of yoga. Our purpose and mission is to educate people on what yoga is and to help them practice it with integrity. I enjoy a glass of wine when the moment strikes, but I would never dream of using my teaching platform to serve wine because it sends the message to yoga students that these two things, drinking wine and practicing yoga, have a similar purpose and that couldn’t be farther from the truth. As I see it, alcohol is consumed for entertainment, to socialize, and to forget about our troubles. Yoga has none of those purposes.
It can also help with diabetic issues will show diabetes indicators unless of course your spine could be normal in every way to viagra free pill increase the male sex organ. Different sort of solid oral meds are accessible at commercial generic levitra online appalachianmagazine.com center as a solution for Erectile Dysfunction and is taken orally to offer a man some assistance with getting and maintain an erection. Small producers, on the other hand, do not appalachianmagazine.com levitra canada pharmacy invest their own money in research or marketing. generic tadalafil india http://appalachianmagazine.com/2018/08/24/the-ancient-origins-of-expression-i-swanee/ What’s more, heavy smoking or spicy foods can also cause blood congestion and inflammation.While some of the side effects of yoga may be socializing and feeling good, those are not the reasons that yoga was developed nor are they the goals of the practice. Yoga is practiced to become healthier in body and mind so that we may focus the mind into clarity. The goal of yoga is not to relax. The goal of yoga is to see clearly and it just so happens that you cannot see clearly when you are tense or stressed. So we must become relaxed first. Once again, it’s a side effect.
If you practice yoga with the sole purpose of feeling good, you will miss some of the most valuable aspects of yoga. Being willing to feel the uncomfortable or negative aspects of our experience is the first step. Next, once we have acknowledged those uncomfortable parts, we can work to see them more clearly and digest or process them and release (if necessary) in a healthy way. This does ultimately lead us to feeling better. If we are hoping to avoid any negative feelings that will never happen.
So it’s not bad or wrong to practice yoga and drink at the same time. It’s simply ineffective. Your yoga practice becomes nullified. I don’t want to teach an ineffective yoga class.
If you’re a yoga teacher attempting to transmit the true teachings of yoga, don’t teach yoga with alcohol. Or goats. Just sayin’. If you are going to pair your yoga teaching with some other unrelated gimmicky thing, look closely at how it may help to increase awareness and clarity. Many things that we do in the world can be made into a yoga practice if they can be done in a meditative way. For example, yoga and hiking (if done in silence, not chatting) or Aqua Yoga or Yoga and Weights, etc.
If you are a business that has been pairing yoga with alcohol, I would encourage you to simply use another word! So easy. Stretching and Wine. Or even Bends and Brews, if it does not use the word yoga in it’s marketing or class description, would be just fine. Please help us honor and transmit the yoga tradition faithfully.
