I have a confession to make: I’m a bad yogi. The truth is that as much as I want to do yoga every day for the health benefits and to feel a little more zen, right now, I just don’t want to do yoga often – I really don’t.
Can you believe I’m actually a qualified yoga teacher?
To be honest, I cannot remember the last time I actually did a full yoga class. During my “yoga sessions”, I usually get bored after the first two or three poses and move on to something more exciting like lifting weights.
I feel restless – I think that’s the thing. I want to dance, I want to walk, I want to exercise with weights, but the idea of being confined to a yoga mat for an entire yoga class makes me feel anxious. Like I will be trapped.
I recently came to the conclusion that trying to sit down and meditate or do gentle yoga to feel better when I’m anxious just makes me feel more anxious.
When I’m in the fight-or-flight response, I try to move and expend as much energy as possible, which is what you would do if you had to fight for your life against an attacker or predator.
I don’t think sitting down to meditate or doing restorative yoga when you are in the fight-or-flight response is ancestrally appropriate. I can get behind some sort of movement meditation – I really like that – but I have to move.
What is a Bad Yogi?
A bad yogi can be described as someone who doesn’t represent the typical idea of a yogi. Bad yogis aren’t necessarily fit or flexible (although they can be). They do yoga the way they want to, without any pressure to chant, meditate, or learn the sanskrit words for different poses.
Many bad yogis, including myself, just care about doing the yoga poses and don’t want to do any of the other stuff.
I might meditate now and then, and I do think it will be good to make it a habit again. But I’m a proud bad yogi, so no pressure.
You Don’t Have to Do Yoga Often or At All
Yoga is good for you, but many things are. If you like to dabble in a bit of yoga every now and then, like me, but you don’t do it consistently or very often, that’s okay. If you don’t do yoga at all, that’s okay.
I’m a really bad yogi and that’s perfectly okay.
