Recovering Yogi

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” *

I have a new project swirling through my right mind. Ages ago I bought the domain name www.recoveringyogi.com with the idea of turning it into an online “refuge for the spiritually disenfranchised.” A forum where those who’ve been burned by the yoga world—or just are just flipping sick of hearing people talk about manifesting and chakras—can come together to embrace their East Coast-ness and be real. I have several columnists in mind, along with Vanessa Fiola’s cheeky art, and I’m starting to get momentum around this idea.

I think it’s important to say here that recoveringyogi.com is not going to be a yoga hater site. Yoga as a practice is awesome, and does a body/mind/spirit good—if it’s your thing. Recoveringyogi.com is specifically about the culty vapid culture of mainstream yoga in America. Of which I am tragically familiar.

Anyhoodle, the point of all this is that I’ve been thinking a lot about Recovering Yogi over the last few days, wrote an article for Elephant Journal yesterday about why I stopped teaching yoga, and then suddenly got this exquisite piece of junk in the mail. Look closely:

I own the domain name, yes, but otherwise have never registered this name, talked about it, signed anything with it…. where did this come from? Awesome.

Incidentally, the quote above? I know it sound an awful lot like it’s about manifesting. It’s not. It’s about synchronicity. Different. Yogis talk endlessly and mindlessly about “manifesting.” Artists make things.

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* (By the way no one seems to know where this quote actually came from, but when trying to research it I found this on some random blog on WordPress:    “The Goethe couplet Murray refers to is from a loose translation of Faust 214-30 made by John Anster in 1835. Anster translating Faust written by Goethe and quoted by Murray (reference at The Goethe Society of North America).  Like I learned from my art professors at MCAD, there are no original thoughts.”)