In this fast paced modern world, should you seek your yoga to be as fast?

We live in a society, perhaps even the whole planet is brainwashed to focus on image, appearance and consumption. So the mass media has made us to work hard, spend all on stuff you don't need, diet pills and other prescriptions to just deal with symptoms after symptoms. Then, you hear that yoga could help you with many things that are physical or mental or even emotional. Yoga became super popular the last decade in our cities and with that popularity comes stereotypes: more female, only slim already flexible, hot yoga, power yoga, flow... The last three types of yoga were an invention in the last few years to cater to our fast paced society with anxious minds. But is it really what would balance us? We must stop and think: if we are already so antsy, should we really practice our yoga in the same way that would just feed our bad thought pattern?

This is one of the propaganda that is being widely spread everywhere: one must get a flat belly with abs to achieve health and beauty. Then, more people are going to the gastroenterologist (gut doctor). Guys who pushed too far and got 6-8 packs on their abs have pain and wonder why since they workout. Observe this model's back: is it in alignment with the anatomy of a two-legged animal? If we build a wall in front of us, where will the organs go? And what about our lungs when you inhale fully, how will it expand? Mastering breathing is important for holistic health, healing process and to develop our ability to meditate.

So what is the solution? Balance! Stop listening to nonsense that is just spreading to make you consume. Forget about abs,  appearance, and consume wisely, don't fall into traps. Be mindful, stay in the present moment, let go of the past; just keep the lessons, and slow down your yoga. The real yoga we need more in this day and age is the original ones that are meant to be therapeutic in nature like Hatha with alignment focus, Iyengar, Yin yoga, restorative, really slow flow in an ambient temperature (to be safe for all). These types of yoga are not easy as holding a posture for more than a minute for beginners means facing the innerself and meditate in that moment. As Dr.Timothy McCall said, yoga cannot be prescribed like we prescribe a pill; it is not because you have a symptom like shoulder pain that the source of your problem is just that area. Most often, because our body is connected, we could get our wrist hurt and months later shoulder having compensated so long for my wrist that the pain occurs. In short, let's go back the source of yoga, let's slow down and hold for 3 minutes each side for each posture to let the fascia react and see what happens after one blood cycle. Like for pills, let's stop dealing with just what is on the surface by just trying to take care of the symptoms, but rather take our time in listening to our bodies, minds, hearts and our souls to go to the source. Our hearts were not meant to be stressed in extreme high intensity cardio workouts (Chinese medicine doctors said that to continue stressing the heart is not building endurance but shortening our longevity), but to find peace, balance and learn to slow down our breathing as well as our heartbeats. This is the synthesis of my thoughts for this year after learning, practicing and teaching yoga and giving detox workshops. I wish you all Happy Holidays and let's learn to slow down to become more present for ourselves and others we love around us for 2017. Cheers~!