I always knew I wanted to teach yoga. I never felt like I could.
Not (solely) because I didn’t think I was ‘good enough’ at yoga, but mostly because I didn’t fit the description. I remember my sister distinctly telling me I wasn’t ‘zen’ enough to do yoga.
And I’m not.
But lately, there’s been something going on with these ‘zen’ people. I wonder if you’ve noticed? Especially if you are a part of a wide yoga and wellness community. Especially if that community has a large presence online.
I wonder if you’ve heard about Q-Anon? I wonder if your yoga teacher shares some of their beliefs?
Beliefs such as; an evil, child-sex-trafficking cult is running the planet, Donald Trump is a ‘light worker,’ and that Democratic leaders are Satan-worshippers harvesting the ‘life-extending’ chemical from the blood of abused children. To name a few. The list really goes on, and nothing seems to be off-limits.
Sounds crazy, right?
Know someone who believes it’s their ‘right’ to not wear a mask? Do you know an anti-vaxxer? Or someone that thinks the BLM chant of ‘We Can’t Breathe,’ is somehow a spell or mantra being used by the public to control your very breathing? I do.
And they are probably considered ‘zen’ enough to be a yoga teacher.
I have never identified or been drawn into the wellness culture that believes crystals have healing powers, that someone can read my aura, or that essential oils have unlimited benefits. They don’t.
They don’t.
Oh, the backlash I’m going to get from the oil-freaks!
The above ideas are slippery slopes on the way to believing in the propaganda that Q promotes. And the slides are getting steeper.
It might seem like a romanticised version of health and healing, but in fact, these ideas are mostly formed from corporate greed, MLM companies, and influencers being paid to sell to you. That package might present pretty, but I can assure you, it’s super ugly.
For anyone who partakes in this kind of thinking and might be sitting there going, “Well, there’s no way I believe in Satan-worshippers running the world, I just put oil in my diffuser and my baby sleeps better.” Ok, great. But how many people in your wellness community have turned on to some of the ideas that Q promotes? Maybe it doesn’t look as obvious as cult-like behaviour. Maybe it looks like their disregard of legitimate news sources as being ‘fake news.’ Maybe it looks like someone who shared the abysmal documentary Plandemic, along with a caption telling you to ‘wake up!’ Or someone who’s been manipulated into thinking that 5G technology is damaging our vibration. Sometimes the wellness-shaming isn’t so obvious.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve never been into the woo-woo, and that’s had me feeling left out of the community. Like my version of yoga is less legit because I don’t partake in full moon rituals and have never had a reiki healing session.
But now I feel less left out. I feel like a voice of reason among a community of people who would, generally-speaking, be considered leftist, but are siding with some seriously far-right ideals.
And I’m in some damn good company. The likes of Seane Corn, Amy Ippoliti, Jivana Heyman, and the amazing dudes over at Conspirituality Podcast, all of who’s media I highly recommend. These are big names in the yoga community trying their very best to be voices of reason, solidarity, and real-life, government-level change.
There’s no way I’ve articulated my thoughts as well as they have over the past months. Months that have seen a global pandemic change the way people in the yoga and wellness world think by dispelling propaganda and fear messaging, and packaging it in a way that makes you feel bad for not allowing your ‘natural immunity’ to save you from a virus that ‘isn’t even real.’
(Side note; I’ve used so many inverted commas in this post. I’m aware of it, but they needed to be there.)
I can’t help guide back those that are so far gone that they don’t even understand that they are aligned with a fascist agenda, but what I may be able to do here, is be at least one more voice in the yoga community that wants you to know that COVID-19 is real, wearing masks and practicing social distancing is the easiest way to prevent the transmission of this virus to the community, and to consume information from unbiased, legitimate, fact-checked sources.
I’m all about enjoying oils and crystals if that’s your thing, and it’s not hurting anybody, but people are hurting. And misinformation is being spread faster than this virus.
Get off the slope. Help your friends and your community members away from the slope. Because the way down leads to a Hell all of its own.