Off the Mat: The Yoga of Politics

Very little of yoga is actually about the asanas, or physical postures. The yoga poses are a very small fraction of the practice. The bulk of the yoga practice is in living the principles, or ethics, of yoga. Very simply put, this involves moving towards greater kindness, tolerance, and patience. It is a way of life in which we become supporters of loving kindness and become consciously aware of what we speak, how we treat others, and the way we live our lives. Yoga, in part, is learning and practicing compassion, contentment, non-violence, and merging with the One. So as a blossoming yogi, I had to ask myself (in light of the presidential election) how to approach politics from a yogic perspective.

As we are rapidly approaching November 6 and the moment of truth (who’s it gonna be?!) I have turned introspective, not so much about the nature of our political arena but about our personal approach to it. I firmly believe that global change starts at the individual level. We cannot expect a world filled with peace, love, and harmony when we are not stepping up to the plate and expressing that in our own personal lives. Most of us are big supporters of peace and try to live in a way that promotes it. But we don’t often see the little nuances in our everyday behavior and reactions that conflict with peace. So I’m calling us out on it. It’s not until we take responsibility for our own behavior and create positive change in our lives that we can expect to see positive change on a larger scale in our world.

How common is the following scenario? Sally is a kind, loving, peace promoting person. She does her part to contribute to positive change in the world. She recycles. She volunteers. She takes good care of herself as she knows it’s important to love the self in order to authentically love others. Sally spends her day exuding positive energy. Then Sally goes home and flips on the evening news. She is upset, discouraged and outraged by the recent car bombings, the state of the economy, the number of gunshot victims, etc. She becomes angry and rages against these “idiots” who are, in her opinion, preventing the peaceful world she strives for. After the evening news Sally tunes in to the most recent presidential debate. Again, she becomes inflamed as one politician openly supports social views that Sally believes contribute to the archaic and fear-based paradigms of our society. Sally wishes very much to live in a world where people just love and accept one another. And yet, as Sally watches this debate, is she loving and accepting the politician she is “against”?

This is the trap most of us fall into. We do our best to promote and support positive change, growth and spiritual expansion in our personal lives and thus the world, and yet we continue to send angry, venomous thoughts and words and opinions towards those we see as the “problem”, without at all realizing we ourselves, by our very response to these individuals, are contributing to the “problem”! If we wish to see a reduction in hate in the world, we must stop hating! If we wish to see a reduction of anger in the world we need to stop being angry at those who are doing things we don’t like!

Here is my challenge to you (and yes I am challenging myself to): As this year’s presidential election nears it’s culmination, you have most certainly decided which candidate you are backing. While supporting them, can you also support the other candidate spiritually? Every election is an opportunity for us to learn how to stop drawing drastic lines in the sand and adopting a more loving, humane, and spiritual process of political support and involvement.

Our political preferences are typically black and white—we love one candidate and despise the other. What if instead of despising the candidate we do not support we back them spiritually? How different would things be if everyone supported everyone, whether they agree with them or not? We may only support one politician with our vote and our monetary donations but we can simultaneously support the other candidate spiritually and emotionally by allowing the energy of love and compassion to flow freely to them. There are so many ways to be supportive of another human being. We don’t have to agree with them, we don’t have to understand where they’re coming from, we don’t have to condone their behavior. But if our response to our disagreements about their behavior and/or political stance were one of love and compassion instead of hate and disgust we would actually be contributing to those energies we say we want to see more of in the world. We stop being hypocrites! It is completely possible to be in total disagreement with another in terms of our stance on social, economic and world issues and yet be supportive of their experience as a fellow human being.

What we have been taught is to withdrawal our love and acceptance of another whose actions and beliefs are in strong opposition to our own. Let’s be paradigm busters! Let’s shift this outdated way of responding to our political figures. The bottom line is we are all expressions of the same divine source and that means every single living thing on the planet is equal and equally deserving of love and respect. If we are all a facet of God, then by dishonoring another aren’t we dishonoring God?

So, as you continue to rally around your presidential candidate in this last week, can you stop judging, criticizing and belittling the other candidate and his supporters?

The challenge is on. I plan to do my best in stepping up to the plate. How about you?

**Photo courtesy of Google Images