On my journey to embrace yoga's Brown and Black roots to decolonize the white western yoga industry, I recently realized that my yoga is loud and noisy.
Over the past six months in my online yoga teacher training program with Susanna Barkataki, an Indian yoga teacher, social justice and equity advocate, and author of Embrace Yoga's Roots: Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice, my personal practice has happened in the comfort of my home meditation space.
In this safe space, I explore physical postures and breath practices at a pace that feels right to my body on that particular day. This personal practice moves me
to groan
to sigh
to cry
to sing
to chant
to puff
to burp!
to hum
to giggle
to yawn
to whisper
Sometimes my noises are so loud that David from the other room, "ARE YOU OK?! DID YOU HURT YOURSELF?!" I usually respond with a laugh, "Yes, just practicing yoga asana!"
Sometimes I wail and sob so loudly that Blue (my dog) walks upstairs to comfort me.
Sometimes I have so much excess vata that it leaves my body through burps.
Whatever my noises are, I see them as energy moving through my body as a way to renew and restore. I've come to love my noises as part of my personal yoga asana and pranayama practice. They come into stark contrast to my past and present experiences in yoga classes that center cultural appropriation and exclusion.
How about you? Do you notice the noises you make during your personal yoga practice? Do you feel like you're "allowed" to make noises? If so, which ones are "normalized" and which of them are not?
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