I haven't really been into making too many playlists lately. Often I just pick a song and let "Genius" do the work. But I threw one together the other day that I ended up enjoying quite a bit.
So, I figured I would share with you.
Om Shanti Om -Deva Premal - Mantras for Precarious Times
Saddened but not surprised by the latest lululemon nonsense. It seems that they feel that money from average sized women is not good enough for them.
I can honestly and with great pride say that I have never shopped at Lululemon. I can barely remember how to spell the name, have no idea what the proper pronunciation is, and was not aware that there was a store in my area until a few months ago. I just really really have no interest whatsoever.
To be honest part of my non-interest may be because I think it's ridiculous to spend so much money on clothes & would feel the same even if I had that kind of money to spend. $98.00 for a pair of pants? 50.00 for a tank top? Really?
The company has been around since 1998. I seem to remember a couple of people sporting their gear around that time, but I think that I really wasn't aware of what they did until the whole ann rand thing. Not that one has to be liberal or conservative to practice yoga. But consider that the ideas of unity & harmony and opening your heart to unconditional love are pretty common themes in the practice. And then there is that whole ahimsa thing.... I mean....I wouldn't call Atlas Shrugged yogic reading. But that's just me.
Then recently there was that see through yoga pants thing. I don't know. I think stuff like this makes a mockery of yoga. But that's what we do in our western culture - we make mockery of things. Goddess forbid we start to go to deep.
I recently met a gentle man from India. I could not help but ask him if he practiced yoga. He said "sometimes I sit and breathe. And, you know, that is yoga. It is different here." Yes. It is different here.
I guess the real reason I am disturbed by this latest foolishness is because yoga is an inclusive practice. Anyone, any size, any capability can have a yoga practice. And through that practice that beautiful inner energetic self is awakened. When that Self is awakened, When Awareness is roused, we realize that it doesn't matter what you wear to your mat. One's inner beauty, inner brightness begins to shine. And we begin to gain acceptance of our bodies. We begin to appreciate ourselves. Not that we don't work towards self improvement, towards better physical health, but we begin to walk there with more gratitude for ourselves.
As Christina Sell says in her book, Yoga From the Inside Out, "When we accept our bodies and lives in present moment just as they are, we complete the ritual exchange of prasad. Acceptance is the way we open the gift we have been given, use it to its fullest potential and say "thank you."
However, when the major cool kid yoga clothes supplier begins to exclude those of a certain body type, the practice of yoga is debased, in my opinion. There are already enough people out there who are hesitant to start the journey because they feel that they would "look foolish." Do we really need to support a company that is basically saying to them, "yes, we think you would look foolish too. So much in fact that we are not going to allow you to shop in our overpriced pretentious store."
I don't think we need to support this at all. I know I don't.
