Is “More” Waiting For Us? Yes!
I heard recently from a youngish teacher in my neck of the woods that she just doesn’t think there is ‘more’ in life. I have news for her: She’s wrong.
Perhaps it’s a generational thing, this hopelessness about the future. However, I have never wallowed in it. Through misfortune and adversity, I believe the only way to move on is to get up, brush yourself off and keep going.
The most popular blogs on the internet these days are about losing jobs, losing lovers and losing faith. In fact, the blog called “Why Lying Broken in a Pile on the Bedroom Floor is a Good Idea” has more than 10,000 reads per week! Let me tell you, that actually happened to me when I was just 12 years old. I was attacked and left for dead in a bathroom stall. And believe me, it was much better when I stood up and walked out of there with my head held high than the whole time I spent lying in my own blood.
My story is told in “Finding More on the Mat: How I Grew Better, Wiser and Stronger through Yoga.” When I took my book to New York, an editor at the time encouraged me to change it to be about weight loss. This is what I said: “This book is not about loss of any kind. This book is about finding more.”
I don’t have all the answers, but much of what I do know I learned from yoga. Our practice is endlessly revealing about who we are and what we can accomplish.
“There are plenty of yoga “memoirs” out there that seem to be little more than self-congratulatory storytelling and recycled pseudo-spiritual platitudes,” said Editor Kate Bartolotta in the Elephant Journal. “This is not one of those books! Finding More on the Mat is both funny and honest.”
Shoot me if you will (and there are plenty of readers who would like to because they do not think yoga should be fun or funny) but I believe in laughing our way to enlightenment. I believe without shame or embarrassment, that there is more waiting for us every day we choose to embrace it. I believe that every single person can live a better life because it happened for me.
My story is about love and life, and how you may have to fail over and over again until you get it right. I hope it gives you strength and courage, so you know as I do that yoga is the path to a fearless heart.
It is not too late to get a copy this holiday season, so that ‘finding more’ is not just a concept but a reality for yourself and for those you love who are looking – unapologetically – for a little more inspiration in their lives.
Michelle Berman Marchildon is the Yogi Muse. She’s an award-winning journalist and a columnist for Elephant Journal and Origin Magazine. She’s also a former corporate executive and a survivor of 50+ years of life. She’s the author of the memoir “Finding More on the Mat: How I Grew Better, Wiser and Stronger through Yoga.” She is an E-500 RYT with Yoga Alliance and teaches Aligned Vinyasa in Denver, Co. You can find her blog and website at www.YogiMuse.com. You can take her with you on your computer or I-thing by downloading her classes from www.yogadownload.com.