Meeting the Noise: What Yoga Can Teach Us in a Time of Crisis
Being human right now is no small task. But if yoga has taught me anything, it’s that we never know exactly what’s coming next. So, as Douglas Brooks (my teacher and friend since 1999) said recently, the best we can do is learn how to live in the storm.
Between the atrocities being committed around the world and in our own country, the rising tide of authoritarianism, and the ever-looming climate crisis, it’s astonishing how much we’re being asked to hold all at once.
And just when you think it can’t get worse—it does. This storm we’re in doesn’t seem to be abating.
What’s tricky is that dominant yoga and wellness culture has often encouraged us to bypass the storm entirely -- to tuck under an awning while the winds rage on, and call that “oneness with the cosmos.”
We do this when we check out, or say things like, “I can’t read the news -- it’s too low vibration.”
And while I sympathize with the desire to retreat (who doesn’t want to feel peace?), none of us can truly exempt ourselves from what’s happening -- to our communities, to the planet, and to the fabric of our shared humanity. To pretend we can is delusion. Because we are nature. We are each other.
Earlier this year, I had the great fortune to travel to Southern India. The southern yoga traditions have a different vision -- one that meets the world as it is, courageously. Or as Michelle Obama said in her commencement speech to my alma mater, Oberlin College we must "run to, and not away from, the noise."
The question yoga asks of us is not how to escape the chaos, but how to be fluent, virtuosic, and lucid right inside the noise.
How do we begin to run toward the noise?
Show up in real life. Say yes to invitations. Register for community events. Host the potluck. Go to yoga class. Be together.
Listen to women. If you’re a woman, raise your voice -- you don’t need to wait to be asked or to prove your worth. Just do your great thing. And to the men: it’s time to really listen. The mansplaining and mantrums aren’t helping. Be willing to let go of some status and let the women be in charge.
Get involved locally. The future is being shaped at school board meetings, city councils, and statehouses -- show up there too.