A Blog Post

I’ve been practicing yoga for my entire adult life. I started because it made me feel good. I kept going because it was making me a better human being — better to myself, better to the people I love, and even better to the ones who drove me nuts.

After a while, it was less about feeling good, and more about feeling right. I needed the yoga because it helped me stay grounded, focused on what really mattered and able to recognize life’s small hardships for what they really were: noise. Some moments of clarity hit me like a freight train, but for the most part, yoga has been about recognizing — and enjoying — the subtle shifts in mindset that occur slowly, over time, and help provide a sense of self and meaning that can easily get lost in the primordial soup in which we all swim.

So, yeah: I’m into yoga. A lot.

And I think that other people — all different kinds of people — could be into it too. But, unfortunately, a lot of people don’t think yoga is for them. That’s disappointing. Furthermore, some folks want to give it a shot, but can’t afford to do so. That’s really disappointing and tells me that a lot of stuff is broken right now — especially since I know a lot of people who are eager to teach (and not really focused on making a bunch of money) but they can’t find opportunities to do so.

These ideas led me to start teaching free classes out of my apartment. And those classes, in turn, led me to create The Yoke, a free website that helps teachers and students to organize free and donation-based yoga opportunities.

Now, weeks later, I’m writing my very first blog post. I knew this time would come, and feared it tremendously. But The Yoke needs to get out there into the world, and apparently “into the world” can be measured (it’s called “website traffic”) and traffic to the site can be boosted with “interesting” and “engaging” content. That’s what a Google search told me. It also told me that I should come up with a clear set of editorial objectives. Here’s one: My goal with this blog is to inspire more people to give yoga a shot. I like that because it fits in nicely with my larger vision for The Yoke, which is to get more people practicing more yoga.

I have big ambitions for this project. I want it to be both “good” and “right” all along the way. A friend recently asked me why I teach yoga, and I surprised myself with my answer: “I like giving people a chance to be easy on themselves.” Like most honest things, it came out shockingly clear and served as a beautiful reminder that I should probably do the same. So that’s the overall objective: push hard for the things I believe in, but be easy on myself along the way. Because, remember, primordial soup, all of this.

Sincerely,
Bill