Yoga and the Economy

Exactly a year ago, I began writing and posting at an online zine site a five-part series about yoga and the economy. These articles purported that yoga, the most economic of all wellness systems ever created, is a natural for helping individuals through rough economic times.

I am opening my specialty blog, Pink Lotus Notes, with a re-post of these articles because, sadly, their content still applies today. The deep recession is still not over. After reading a report on the growing poor class in the United States (not news, but a reminder of the current ills we face), I felt it was important to do my part to try and help, and help today comes in the form of encouragement. I hope you find these articles interesting and helpful and that you are inspired to practice yoga, now more than ever.

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It is fall 2008. We have a new president-elect, the holiday season is in our presence, and snow is falling here on a beautifully thick gray day in Midwest America. Normally, based on these factors-being an especial lover of gray late-autumn days--I would say things are good.

But things are not good. We are riding a wave of a recession whose dark-lit story seems by experts' observations to be in its early chapters. We've all heard the fears, the fallout, the collapses, and the numbers, and we all expect to hear much more. Even if we generally dwell on the sunny side of the street, these are comparatively dark days.

Enter yoga and the economy. Yoga, the most economical of wellness systems ever created, can help humans through economic hard times. Now, more than ever when millions of people practice yoga worldwide, the power of steadfast yoga can help raise spirits and bring back a universal balance.

First, know that you are an economy in and of yourself. When a nation's economy is strong, the force of humans contained within it functions at a generally higher, smoother state than in a weaker economy. Likewise, when you are healthy in diet, exercise, and mind work (e.g., mental-emotional wellness exercises), you can be said to be a strong economy of one. These three broad realms of yoga practice and principle-diet, exercise, and mind work-are also the foundation of basic human wellness.

It is when one of these personal Big Three falters for you that it is time to take stock, make a plan, and take action. Even if you are eating well and exercising regularly these days but have more stress than you had before the economy started plummeting, you are at risk of personal economy downturn.

Consider the impact our nation's economic crisis, which threatens basic survival, has made on personal wellness. Retirement fund loss, heavy unemployment, and high anxiety of high prices at the store and the pump have touched our lives directly or indirectly, but most likely both. If you are worried about your retirement from 401K fallout or know someone who is, or if you are angry that your brother lost his job at GM or lost a job yourself, or if you are anxious that good, healthy food is so much more expensive than it used to be or worried how your community's much less fortunate are going to get enough food in the coming four weeks, this message is for you: Turn to yoga.

Turn to yoga. Or, if you are already a regular practitioner, turn to yoga more: more often, more intensely.

Yoga means unity. Just like the air you breathe, what happens to you happens to me. Your unemployed friend is your concern. Conversely, your efforts to keep yourself healthy in this recession can become your friend's hope. By keeping yourself up in these hard times, you help keep up the lives of those around you. This is yogic fact, or at least yogic modus operandi.

So use yoga's Big Three to get strong and stay strong. Be the government of your own economy. And don't give up on governance. Keep injecting your economy of one with yoga just like a government would inject its economy with recovery plans. Tap into the infinite resources within you to create a brighter day for you, for others.

In my next article, I will discuss the economy of yoga: highly effective techniques that offer a high return on investment.