Enlighten Up! Part 2: Laughter is the best medicine

“The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.”    - Margot Fonteyn
 
As human beings, we do take our work seriously, whether we work a salaried job, dedicate our time to volunteer activities, or take on the difficult task of raising human beings and caring for family. To do this well, we need to take the second part of Fonteyn’s quote to heart. Our ability to observe our experiences with humor and without judgment helps us avoid taking ourselves too seriously.
 
Don’t get me wrong – there is much to be sad, troubled and disheartened about in today’s world BUT my way of dealing with it all is to sneak in lightness and laughter. If you practice yoga, you’ll recognize the humor in The Full Catastrophe Sun Salutation. If you’re not into yoga, just read it as my attempt to add some humor into our current world situation and address the complexity of living life in Earth school until we ‘graduate.’
 
The idea for The Full Catastrophe Sun Salutation came from a You Tube video titled, “Angry Yoga.” In it a yoga teacher leads her class in a Sun Salutation complete with commentary on climate change, cultural dissonance and the futility of hope. It is dark and devastatingly funny (to me). I wanted to expand on the shtick but end it on a positive note. I’m an optimist and hope springs eternal after all. The title comes from Jon Kabat Zinn’s book, “Full Catastrophe Living,” that deals with stress, mindfulness, meditation and healing.
 
The Full Catastrophe Sun Salutation
1. Mountain Pose. Stand tall. Feel your feet planted into the Earth, our poor messed up planet Earth, full of war, famine, poverty, hazardous waste, divisive politics, violence, ignorance, and pain. Have I left anything out? Take a big inhalation and release the breath with a suitable sound: Ahhhhhhhrgh!!!
 
2. Upward Salute. Inhale your arms overhead. Reach up towards the warmth of the sun, even though you know it’s gonna’ die, first growing 40% brighter and hotter as the oceans boil, the ice caps melt, and the atmosphere goes poof and drifts out to space while we slowly suffocate. Too bad the sun isn’t massive enough to go supernova and burn us all to crispy critters. That would be a whole lot quicker. Oh, well.
 
3. Forward Fold. Hinge from the hips, hands flowing down to your feet like the acid rain, snow, fog, hail and dust that’s polluting lakes, streams, and wetlands, damaging the soil and everything that grows from it—fruits, vegetables, plants and trees. Feeling a bit of existential angst? Entering a “dark night of the soul?” Hang in there; we’re not done yet!
 
4. Lunge Pose. Step your right leg back. Come into your lunge. Gaze straight toward the horizon covered in pollution, haze, and industrial smoke. The title of that old song by Arthur Hamilton “Cry Me a River” seems appropriate right now, so sob uncontrollably until your tears end the droughts in the U. S., Colombia, Pakistan, Somalia, Australia, Guatemala, China and Kenya to mention just a few countries. 
 
5. Downward Facing Dog Pose. Step your left foot back. Lift up high to the sky and don’t give a flying fig what anyone thinks about the size of your behind—especially you! 
 
6. Plank Pose. Inhale into Plank Pose. Focus on your core. Want those six-pack abs? Hang in there until your muscles seize and you collapse like a stone. Then sink gracefully and gratefully into Child’s pose. Surrender to thoughts of that piece of chocolate cheesecake waiting for you at home. Sugar, calories, and fat — emotional eating at its best. Yummy.
 
7. Low Cobra Pose. Inhale forward into Low Cobra and while you’re there, gently bang your head on your mat a few times. This is a therapeutic technique to help you push away thoughts about the misery of life, the uselessness of caring about anything, or the hopelessness of changing anything. Find your excuse to cop out, drop out, and give up. Let your body melt into the earth. It will anyway, cause’ life’s a bitch and then we die.
 
8. Downward Facing Dog Pose. Now lift up high to Down Dog once more and consider that this might be the closest any of us gets to our personal idea of heaven or the afterlife. Bend one knee and then the other as you walk your Dog to the Pearly Gates, Paradise, Nirvana, or your next incarnation. When you get there, remind whoever or whatever is guarding the entrance that you have a Self-Awareness coupon for admittance that never expires.
 
9. Lunge Pose. Step your right foot forward. Come into your lunge. As you gaze toward the horizon this time, exhale calmly because you are doing your part to save the Earth. You recycle paper, cardboard, and plastic containers numbered one through seven, take cloth bags to do your grocery shopping, use public transportation, carpool, bike, or simply walk when and wherever possible and refuse to use single use plastic bags and bottles.  
 
10. Forward Fold. Step your left foot forward and release your spine, head, and neck. Hang there in Forward Fold and let all the little white lies you’ve ever told to save someone else’s feelings drain out of your ears. Hold the pose and release the negative self-talk that keeps you angry, sad, and cynical. Let them fall out of your slightly parted lips. Lastly, notice the unhelpful core beliefs that drip, drip, drip from your nose, clearing your sinuses and alleviating any seasonal allergies. YAY! There’s a beneficial side effect. 
 
11. Standing Twist Left (Rishi’s Posture). Bend your right knee as you inhale and lift your left arm out to the side and up. Twist your upper body to the left. Reach up high and let your energy slowly rise along with your arm. As you exhale and lower your arm, you realize that as messed up as things seem, YOU WILL BE OK.
 
12. Standing Twist Right (Rishi’s Posture). Bend your left knee as you inhale and lift your right arm out to the side and up. Twist your upper body to the right. Exhale and lower your arm. Remember what Lena Horne, the award–winning singer, dancer, actress, and civil rights activist said, “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
 
13. Upward Salute. Inhale both arms overhead. Reach up high toward the sun. After all it’s going to be there for at least a billion more years! 
 
14. Mountain Pose. Stand tall, arms by your sides. Feel your feet planted into the Earth and as you prepare to move from your Full Catastrophe Sun Salutation into your day, don’t yourself too seriously, and as you enlighten up through laughter, remember to share your joy with others!

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