I Believe...I Can Touch the Sky

Last Friday, I left my house and trekked into NYC at 6 a.m. to take part in the annual Summer Solstice in Times Square (this was my second; I missed last year as I was celebrating the solstice Kundalini yoga-style in New Mexico). When I arrived (with my dear friend D), I didn’t feel quite as excited as I had the first time, but pretty soon the magic of yoga surrounded me and I was flying high. There’s something so fun about doing yoga amidst skyscrapers! It’s just that feeling of "If I can do yoga here, I can do yoga anywhere and in any situation!"

            I know I’m a bit of a yoga nut (and if you don’t like reading about yoga you might want to skip this post), but on the other hand, yoga isn’t just about poses. Far more difficult than doing tree pose or lotus in Times Square, is using one’s calm yoga mind to block out all the distractions. One of my favorite things about yoga (and it’s probably true for runners, motorcyclists, musicians, and anything else that requires concentration) is that it helps you turn everything else off. It’s like a bubble bath for the brain…you just enter your yoga realm wherever you are, and come out feeling fresh, cleansed, and clear.

            Another thing I love about yoga in Times Square is the feeling that the world IS changing for the better. The organizers say that they started 11 years ago with three people. On Friday, 16,000 yogis practiced throughout the day in the Times Square location. That’s a lot of yogis---and it reflects the fact that yoga IS taking over the world!

            Yes, folks, yoga is taking over the world. Peace, love, harmony, commitment, dedication, non-harming, trust, compassion, et.al… are taking over the world. We yogis are good at manifesting our dreams, so you’d better believe it! Sure, there’s still a lot that needs fixing, and plenty problems exist everywhere. But if we can grow from 3 to 16,000 just in NYC, I believe change is possible.

 As the song goes, do I “...believe I can fly?” No, not really. But I do believe I can touch the sky. In fact, the picture below (the brainchild of my friend D) proves I can!