I practice a lot of yoga and I listen to a lot of rap. Alot of people, mostly all people who know me, think that I'm a bit odd for this. It doesn't make sense, how a little Asian gal can love rap music so much but also practice so much yoga. I really do, from my soul love rap music and love yoga. I guess if we are looking at these two things on the surface they seem very different. Often times, yoga imagery is depicted as pretty girls who are flexible, wear colorful pants, flowers in their hair and live some sort of "holistic" "vegan" life style while images of rappers are of them flashing their hoes, money, cars, living life in the streets. On the surface level, yoga and rap music appear to be worlds away from each other, but if we look deeper; the core of Yoga and the core of rap music is the same, it's truth.
Yoga is about living your true self, connecting yourself to who you really are and living from that space. The path of yoga is shedding all the suffering, to discover who you really are. It's about realness and honesty. The goal of yoga is enligtenment but we cannot practice with the goal in mind, then you are not practicing yoga-but that's another topic to be discussed. While rap music, is letting truths be known, it's a way to shed our suffering, through lyrics, through music. And if we know anything about hip hop, it's for reals. Keepin it 100. How many times have you heard a rapper say that?
So if we really know what Yoga is about and we really know what rap is about, it's not so odd that they are more similar in their core than they are different. No wonder these two facets are a huge part of my life. I've been listening to rap music since I was 8 years old, and I could not tell you what drew me to it in the first place. (My parents were definitely not listening to Biggie or TuPac around the house and they weren't too thrilled that I was either.) Since I discovered yoga, I have earnestly practiced. The more I practice, the more I can see. I never questioned why I like what I like and why I live how I live, I just do it and I'm gaining more clarity each day. The more I practice, the more parallels of rap music and of Yoga I find. Still I think many people may disagree or find it odd but maybe it's because we are not used to looking at things for what they really are but instead making judgments when we can only see the surface. The surface is fleeting, it's ever changing, the core of us, the spirit of who we are, that doesn't change, and we should let that part of us shine.
This life can be hard to live and it takes a lot of courage to speak the truth and more courage to live it. The power of yoga is to be comfortable with who you truly are and live from there. The power of yoga is living your truth and not letting anyone tell you other wise. Dr. Cornel West says, "The telling of truth allows suffering to speak." So continue to shed your suffering, whatever your practice may be, and allow your truth to shine. Don't let em kill yo shine, you betta live!!
