YOU MIGHT BE THINGKING🙄
What could 50Cent; black rapper, actor and television producer from Queens and Ram Das a white middle class Harvard Professor from Boston turned spiritual leader of the biggest cultural revolution in the 60s have in common? Why would I bring these polar opposites ( from the outside) together?
And what does it have to do with Yoga?…..read on.
It has a lot to do with life and perception and achieving your greatest potential as a human. Tough times are vehicles for change.
👉See the positive opportunity in otherwise troublesome situations, and to transcend upwards.
These controversial yogis use the circumstances they find themselves in at any given time  (good or bad) as vehicles for transformation, and most importantly were thankful for the hard times because this is where the transformation can happen.
Change is not on hold until you get on the mat.
I’ve put these two gurus together as a reminder that all of life’s experiences are opportunities and vehicles for enlightenment. You don’t necessarily have to be practising on the mat every day to be a yogi.
50 Cent (formally Curtis Jackson);
In May 2000 50Cent was shot 9 times which could have been the end of what was looking like an inspired successful career, but…
 “After I got shot nine times at close range and didn’t die, I started to think that I must have a purpose in life “.
He not only had resilience, but he also had vision and perspective that helped him to see that everything in life is as it is meant to be.
“find your flow and never be locked in the same position”
“see the situations without fear, not to wish they were different, but to embrace them, to sharpen your attention to what’s going on around you. See the troubles as blessings.”
Ram Das (formally Richard Alpert);
Widely known as the professor at Harvard who was sacked for encouraging pupils to take LSD in the 60s. In a similar way to 50Cent this looked from the outside as the end to a successful career but Ram Das saw this as an opportunity for change. Embracing the situation, releasing him from the shackles of societal thinking, he travelled to India, met his guru and discovered spirituality.
In the same way as 50 Cent is today today. Ram Das became an influencer to a generation in the 60’s, introducing thousands of Westerners to the power of meditation and yoga.  In his time he was a controversial figure, writing a number of books that to this day remain bibles to an alternative path, of our human ability to embrace a different way of living.
But this is not a story about these two individuals, it’s a story about transformation.
Turn any situation into a vehicle for change.
Every day we see suffering around us; in our local communities, on the news, screens, every conversation can be negative. However, its down to us as individuals to change our outlook, to embrace every challenge and be happy for the opportunity to grow stronger.
Even in these troubled times we find ourselves in right now, apply these lessons, look for opportunities within the struggle to move upwards, not sink downwards. Look at history, there are always wars, periods of financial depression and change but “out of the ashes the phoenix rises” .
This is the spiritual practice of yoga, have a firm grasp on the reality of the here and now, and use the situation for the purpose to change.
If we take every moment and be in that moment, create our own reality, become a witness, observe without judgement we will see the world differently.
Look at everything around you and “sharpen your eye, become a key observer of everything”. The biggest challenge is not to be broken by the circumstances, but to be strengthened by them. Live your life as an experience, don’t hold on or wait until you get to the mat, don’t press pause until Monday, these are only projections and procrastinations. Be right here right now and make it happen.
“My Life is my message” Ghandi
This blog can be seen as an introduction to a change of perspective. Consider your initial or preconceived ideas about 50 Cent ?
Did you know who Ram Das is?
And consider your thinking about this now?
Open up your Yogi mindset beyond the mat. You have to do the work, go deeper.
Read the books;
