awesome painting by Felice House
My new love interest has a tattoo of Yoda on his big, muscular, sexy arm. Before meeting him, I would have to say that my old (and continued) love interest was practicing Vinyasa yoga. There is something euphoric about being on my mat, in a heated room, moving my body and disciplining my mind to become one with my breath.
I’ve never been much of a science fiction aficionado. To be honest, I never really understood what Star Wars and its characters were all about so seeing Yoda more often sparked a curiosity to know more. The description I got of him immediately made me connect Yoda with yoga.
Yoda is the Grand Master of the Jedi order. He is among the oldest and most powerful known Jedi Masters in the Star Wars universe. A Jedi Master is one who has attained mastery of the Force and acts as a keeper of peace and justice in the galaxy. Jedis make up a spiritual academic organization which studies, serves, and uses the mystical power of Force in order to help and protect those in need. These guardians of peace are led by Yoda, who teaches them the importance of practicing patience and strength.
In the real world, at least in my own reality, I view my yoga instructors kind of like Yodas and us yogis as the Jedis. During a yoga class, a good teacher will instruct students to move into different yoga poses while simultaneously sharing words of wisdom and truth about patience, strength, awareness, release, and most importantly the practice of focusing on breath, which I consider to be the mastery of Force. Breath (Force) being our gift from God that reminds us that we are living and helps us to slow down, be present, and connect with ourselves and our surroundings.
I believe that all of us have the potential to become a Yoda. Remember Yoda is known as the most powerful Jedi Master because of his mastery of the Force, his peace, and justice keeping. The way I see it, we could all work towards living in this way. All it takes is learning to master our own breath to serve us in calming ways, choosing to be at peace with ourselves and others, accepting things as they are and feeling gratitude, and keeping justice by treating others the way that we want to be treated. These sound so simple when I write them down, however, I know firsthand that they are definitely not always easy to put into practice. Life on earth is much more different than the Star Wars galaxy, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t all strive to be guardians of peace- Yodas.
Who knows, maybe the next time you think of or see Yoda, you might be inspired to practice yoga. Even if you decide not to do yoga, perhaps you can begin with simply connecting with your breath to experience life in the here and now, give thanks, and show kindness to someone else around you.