I’ve been on the waiting list at my library forever for Glennon Doyle’s book, Love Warrior. I first heard Glennon Doyle’s voice on Jonathan Field’s podcast: The Good Life Project. She was bold, brave, and a voice I totally wanted to soak up more of. I hopped on my eReader and signed up for the long waiting list at my library to download it.
It was a few days ago that I found out it was finally my turn! The same day I was also notified that another book I’d been long waiting to read, Pema Chödrön’s most famous book, When Things Fall Apart was finally mine for the downloading. Two precious books, eagerly awaited, were finally at my finger-tips. What a day! I had just finished Pema Chödrön’s book, Taking the Leap, so for the sake of variance, I dove headfirst into Love Warrior.
I was touched. I am not an alcoholic, nor a recovering bulimic but I found myself deeply relating to Glennon’s struggles for validation, sense of self, and boundaries. The first 11 chapters chronologued her journey through adolescence to adulthood to motherhood. It’s heartbreakingly honest. Glennon Doyle stays vulnerable through every page. It was chapter 12 that I fell deep in love with this book. Not surprisingly, this is the chapter where Glennon finds yoga.
I had never considered that a student could enjoy a yoga class on the sole premise of the thrill of not making decisions. Glennon celebrated that in a yoga class, she was free of all the responsibility that comes with control.
“…here, in this warm little room tucked away from my life, Allison is in charge. It feels like the goal here is to pretend for a while that I am not the God of my life. Or maybe to stop pretending that I’ve ever been the God of my life. All I know is that there is no move I can make in this little room that will hurt my children or me. I want to stay here forever, not making decisions, not thinking, not screwing anything up, concentrating only on where to put my hands and feet. I love not being God. I want to not be God forever, which is why my heart sinks when Allison bows to the God in us, says that class is over, and stops telling us what to do.”
It was enlightening for me to consider Glennon’s perspective. That a yoga class is a place where students not only surrender to their mat, but to their teacher as well. I’ve been aware of the responsibility I have to my students health and safety in my classroom. I’ve also been conscious of their trust that I will give them a positive, warm, welcoming environment, a place where not just a physical journey can occur, but an emotional and spiritual one as well. Yoga is the union of the mind, body, and spirit. I am my student’s guide not just for one of these branches, but for all three.
It never dawned on me that some students may need yoga as a space for releasing responsibility and relinquishing control. I’m grateful that Glennon alerted me to this possibility. It makes me curious to hear more people’s answers. What does a yoga class give to you?
Glennon also discovered a key gift of yoga as well, a gift I am profoundly grateful for:
“In yoga, instead of using my mind to download wisdom, I use my body. Allison tells me to do something with my legs, “Settle into Warrior Two, stand firm, ground your legs and you won’t fall; balance is created by equal forces pressing in on an object.” I stand there, pressing my legs together, and it hits me: Wait, what? I’ve been trying to find my balance by eliminating pressure from my life. The demands of work, friendship, and family all felt so heavy. But what if all this pressure isn’t what’s throwing me off, but what’s holding me steady? What if pressure is just love and love is what keeps me anchored? Complete shift. My body is teaching my mind. Over and over in those classes, my body will do something new and Allison will say something new, and I will suddenly understand something I’ve never understood before. It is a stunning revelation: My body can be a teacher, a conduit of wisdom.”
It’s true. It’s not hot-off-the-press news either. Science has proven that memories are stored in our bodies and our bodies can teach us lessons. Yoga is a place of discovery. It’s a place where you invite your body to soften and to open. When else, or where else, do we invite our body to open up to us? When do we twist our spine, lubricating the vertebrae? When else do we push our hips open in butterfly? We often repeat the same motions ever day, but rarely do we ask our body to open wider, sink deeper, steady longer. There is much to learn when we stop, stretch, and listen.
Also, in Chapter 12, synchronicity happens. Glennon Doyle doesn’t reference another book in her entire memoir other than that bible except for just one. Just one book she mentions. A yoga teacher mentions to Glennon after class that she just went through The Journey of the Warrior. This triggers something for her.
“I walk out through the lobby and into the sun and experience an overwhelming sense of deja vu. The Journey of the Warrior. This phrase rings a bell in my soul, but why? I climb into my van, rush home, and pull Pema Chödrön’s When Things Fall Apart off my nightstand. I flip to a page I’ve dog-eared and run my finger down the lines to a sentence I’d underlined and highlighted but hadn’t really understood until now: ‘So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn’t sit for even one, that’s the journey of the warrior.’”
Remember how I mentioned earlier that I had received the good news that two books that I had long waited for, were made available to me on the exact same day? Oh, yeah. Same book. Synchronicity. Perfect synchronicity.
“…there is no right answer. There are only stories to tell.”
Glennon Doyle’s memoir, Love Warrior, is a story she was brave enough to tell. Please read it. There is much to learn, and much to love.
