Crow is Awesome

So I was on another TEDtalk watching kick, and there was a talk by Jill Shargaa that really stood out to me and got me thinking. It was about the word “awesome” and how we generally misuse it.

And by “we” I totally mean “me, too.” Then again, if you’ve ever read this blog or seen a video before, you already know that. So I’m trying to do better, trying to use “awesome” when it’s actually appropriate. According to dictionary.com, awesome is supposed to describe something that inspires admiration and/or fear… that is, something that inspires a state of awe.

I’m totally with Jill, for the most part. I mean, yeah, in all likelihood whatever you had for lunch was definitely not truly “awesome”. Jill goes into a list of things that do qualify as awesome, according to her, and as she worked her way through her list I started to disagree with her.

For instance, sharks were on her list for being fierce creatures at the top of the food chain. However, I know that sharks have their flaws as creatures too (their mouths are in really ineffective places to actually eat or maim people) and I also don’t live in or near the ocean, so they’re not really on my radar of “things to fear”.

Realizing this got me thinking about perspective. After all, we all have different experiences and opinions on things. What one person finds admirable or scary isn’t going to inspire the same response in someone else.

And even if we’re going back to using the word “incorrectly” I still don’t want everyone else to think the same things that I do are totally awesome. I like seeing my favorite bands in small, intimate venues for $10 at the door, rather than dishing out hundreds to scalpers for sold out arenas. I want the food I like not to sell out at the grocery store. I want to be able to stretch my legs at the park nearest my house rather than everyone in the city deciding its the best one and crowding around. Differences in opinion and tastes make life not only interesting but, honestly, bearable.

You know what most of us can probably agree on, though?

Yoga is awesome.

That’s right — even if we’re not using slang, yoga qualifies as awesome. There’s a lot of admiration for the things that we achieve in our practice (and seeing what others can achieve, yay for inspiration) . And there’s probably at least a little bit of fear, amiright? (If there’s no fear in your practice, we should talk!)

Why is yoga so awesome? Well, partially because it brings change. Change is scary. But change is also pretty cool, because we are challenged and find growth in change.

Crow definitely qualifies as an awesome pose in yoga. There’s the whole face planting potential, but also the potential that you can suspend the body so very elegantly (or precariously) in that distinctive arm balance. We’ll work on crow a bit in this practice, including a modification I really enjoy.

I also made up a pretty sweet soundtrack for this practice. Click right here to open up a playlist of Joy Division that will play in the background while you do all of this awesome yoga (you should also be able to click the link directly in the video).

Don’t forget to leave me some comments — I still haven’t heard anything from people about whether or not this new “click on a soundtrack if you want it” scenario is working out. Also, what do you wanna listen to next week? What moves do you wanna work on next week? Talk to me!

But right now, join me on the mat, it’s gonna be awesome 😉

Cheers, yo!

-*- Namaste -*-

-April