Venus Rising

Yoga for LivingIssue: Pisces 2009 - The Movie Issue

Documentary or Feature Film?

"Life is a B movie. It’s stupid and it’s strange. It’s a directionless story and the dialogue is lame.  But in the he said she said sometimes there’s some poetry if you turn your back and you let it happen naturally.”

– Ani Difranco

Ah…the natural. Through yoga and meditation practice we learn to participate in our lives. This way we do not become victims of someone else’s agenda or view. We find our own view and ultimately make our own movie. My teacher, Jill, used to ask us if we were living in a feature film or a documentary. In a feature film, we are caught up in fantasy and drama. There are special effects, pages of written dialogue, and stunt people. No wonder we like going to the movies so much. It makes life seems a lot more exciting then it actually is. In a documentary, life moves slower. The camera moves less, and there are no special effects or computer-created images. It’s humans, nature, animals, and ultimately our lives as they are. 

Because yoga and meditation cultivate clarity of mind, practice cuts through our delusions and fantasies so that we can touch what is real. The feel of our breath. The tenderness of our hearts. Our shared humanness. The crazy thing about it is that when we experience these real aspects of ourselves they cannot be communicated through plot or dialogue. There is no storyline. There is only the felt sense. We look beneath the chatter of our minds and feel our experience of body and breath. We start to relax. This is where the beauty starts to reveal itself. The color of the sky. The way the ice freezes on the windows. The depth in a lover’s eyes. The movie of our life becomes interesting without having to be overly dramatic or made up.

I enjoy a good movie, especially slower moving, emotionally intense films. I also, however, appreciate finding entertainment by looking inside and exploring the amazing depth inherent in the human body. Yoga gave me a way in, and these days, I see a lot less movies.

Learn more about Emily Garrett and her yoga classes at http://www.emilygarrettyoga.com