First let me say, I feel ya! You hear about a 'healing cirlce' or a 'Shakti Fest' and you think to yourself... Alright yoga chick... I was with you for "let your heart shine" and I chose to ignore the unicorn reference you made in describing the uplift of my arms in Warrior One, but I check out at being "shaktified"! And don't think you are ever dragging me to a silent day of reflection or God forbid a Trance Dance!
I was there once too. No matter how deeply I went into my yoga practice there were still a few things I was not willing to try becuase I deemed them too close to the hippy/deadhead yogi fringe. I honor that this is a polarizing revelation but here it is... I loathe jam bands. Dead shows look to me like swaying outbreaks of STD's and cholera. And based on this still-lingering judgment, I chalked drumming circles into this same category, having only witnessed them from afar when tricked into attending some 'festival'. (I swear I am working on my patience, ahimsa and tolerance practices EVERY SINGLE DAY.)
I managed to avoid drumming in Bali, in India and even dodged a drumming bullet in a Thai hill tribe village for goodness sake - no small feat as a traveling yogini! So imagine my horror when I landed in Auckland, New Zealand and met the friend of a friend (dear sweet Owen) who announced that the night's plan was to go to a drumming circle in an old church and then grab some dinner. I was trapped. Here was this kind soul who, sight unseen, had offered to show me around New Zealand and I could not begin with - "Dude... I don't drum!"
And so I found myself in an old Catholic church freezing in my just from Bali attire beating a drum, at first to generate heat (and to not appear as a complete stick-in-the-mud) and by the end because it was a full on laugh riot! I had SO. MUCH. FUN! My view of drummers turned on a dime, my impression of what went on in those circles was forever changed and deep down I found some rhythm I never knew I had. Maybe my apprehension was really a fear that I would suck at it, and truth be told, I kinda did, but it didn't matter. We all melded slapping hands and tapping fingers into one of the most fun nights of my travels. I'm a convert.
Here now some two years later I find myself in Cincinnati, Ohio, the owner of a yoga studio and soon to be host to a drumming workshop and trance dance and I am wondering why no one is pre-registering for this amazing event. And then I remember my experience, my resistance to banging the old calfskin (side bar...maybe the calfskin part is why my vegan friends aren't registering) - and I must laugh at my preconceptions and prejudices.
Come my friends, try something new! If somehow you don't enjoy it, at least there is a real bar right next door. And who knows, if you knock back enough G&T's between the drumming and the trance dance you might just find yourself laughing on the dance floor too.
I was there once too. No matter how deeply I went into my yoga practice there were still a few things I was not willing to try becuase I deemed them too close to the hippy/deadhead yogi fringe. I honor that this is a polarizing revelation but here it is... I loathe jam bands. Dead shows look to me like swaying outbreaks of STD's and cholera. And based on this still-lingering judgment, I chalked drumming circles into this same category, having only witnessed them from afar when tricked into attending some 'festival'. (I swear I am working on my patience, ahimsa and tolerance practices EVERY SINGLE DAY.)
I managed to avoid drumming in Bali, in India and even dodged a drumming bullet in a Thai hill tribe village for goodness sake - no small feat as a traveling yogini! So imagine my horror when I landed in Auckland, New Zealand and met the friend of a friend (dear sweet Owen) who announced that the night's plan was to go to a drumming circle in an old church and then grab some dinner. I was trapped. Here was this kind soul who, sight unseen, had offered to show me around New Zealand and I could not begin with - "Dude... I don't drum!"
And so I found myself in an old Catholic church freezing in my just from Bali attire beating a drum, at first to generate heat (and to not appear as a complete stick-in-the-mud) and by the end because it was a full on laugh riot! I had SO. MUCH. FUN! My view of drummers turned on a dime, my impression of what went on in those circles was forever changed and deep down I found some rhythm I never knew I had. Maybe my apprehension was really a fear that I would suck at it, and truth be told, I kinda did, but it didn't matter. We all melded slapping hands and tapping fingers into one of the most fun nights of my travels. I'm a convert.
Here now some two years later I find myself in Cincinnati, Ohio, the owner of a yoga studio and soon to be host to a drumming workshop and trance dance and I am wondering why no one is pre-registering for this amazing event. And then I remember my experience, my resistance to banging the old calfskin (side bar...maybe the calfskin part is why my vegan friends aren't registering) - and I must laugh at my preconceptions and prejudices.
Come my friends, try something new! If somehow you don't enjoy it, at least there is a real bar right next door. And who knows, if you knock back enough G&T's between the drumming and the trance dance you might just find yourself laughing on the dance floor too.
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