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going on you feel good and calm, and
generally lighter about life. You take stuff
a bit less seriously. You let go a bit, and
things seem to go much better.
Swear therapy
This isn’t my idea. It’s the magical modern
mantra of a man called John C.Parkin. His
whole ‘F It Therapy’ approach to life
has taken the world by storm (with over
500,000 books sold in 22 languages). He
says “it’s the perfect Western expression
of the Eastern spiritual ideas of letting
go, giving up, and finding real freedom by
realising that things just don’t matter.”
He adds: “It’s a spiritual way that doesn’t
require chanting, meditating, wearing
sandals or eating pulses. And it’s the
very power of this profanity that makes it
perfect for shaking us Westerners out of
the stress and anxiety that dominate our
meaning-full lives.”
Despite the fact that I do like a bit of
‘Om-ing’ every now and again, have been
known to do a spot of mindfulness, am
particularly fond of my Star Wars flip-flops,
and make a mean three pulse-packed
chilli...I took his point and loved where he
was coming from.
So how can you bring some of this
‘sweary’ wisdom onto your yoga mat? Could
bringing a sense of “Aaaah f it!” to your
practice help you find something new?
Or at least make the whole thing a little
lighter? I think it can.
Say it to feeling stuck
From this ‘sweary’ perspective, feeling
stuck can often come from a space where
your imagination just hasn’t got enough
elbow room to come up with any possible
solutions. So why not bring some freedom
into your practice? Turn on your favourite
tunes, get on your mat and just see what
happens. No one is saying you have to
create a class that’s worthy of Shiva Rea
but when your body starts to move with
freedom, the energy will follow, and you
may just have yourself a catalyst for
everything else to start flowing too.
Say it to feeling weak
There are times when you just feel like
you’ve had the stuffing knocked out of
you. Life gives you a good old shake up
and shake out. It’s time to recognise that
strength comes in all different forms; and
sometimes it’s time to say f*** it. Weakness
is a relative term so can you reframe it
when you’re next on your mat? When your
legs are shaking in Warrior can you say to
yourself “oooh look how hard my legs are
working? That’s (ahem)-ing great!”Say it to being scared
Fear can be a useful feeling. If we didn’t
have it no one would understand why
climbing up tall stuff was a remarkable
thing to do, and we’d never be out of our
local A&E. But in this case it’s not saying
it to the fear, because sometimes the fear
needs to be felt. Through your practice you
can challenge yourself with the poses that
are fearful for you – whether that’s an arm
balance or a heart opener – and begin to
believe that you are safe, no matter how
you feel.Say it to the voices
in your head
It could be when the willowy Amazonian
beauty unrolls her mat next to yours in
class and The Voice begins a running
commentary of why she’s better and
bendier than you. Perhaps The Voice pops
up next time you’re in a meeting. Maybe
it comes out to dinner with your friend.
Whenever it starts to speak, engage your
new f*** it approach, and welcome it into
a conversation. Maybe it just wants to be
heard and acknowledged with an ‘okay,
that’s interesting’ approach.
If nothing else, saying it is going to bring
some fun into your life. Because that’s what
this concept brings - fun. It encourages
you to start looking at how you can let go
of the control we’re so often desperately
hanging on to.
Say it and give up, let go, and stop
resisting. This is freedom. Finally doing
what you really want to. Letting go of all
the ‘woulds’, and ‘shoulds’, and getting
connected to that still small voice within;
the one that will help you realise that within
us all is the same energy but you can only
let it flow and shine when you just let go.
Just like we do when we’re on the yoga
mat – when we surrender to the breath, let
go of trying to force ourselves into a pose,
release any expectations – that’s when the
practice flows. That’s when we find our flow.
That’s when we are the flow. And it feels
blimmin’ great.Meg Jackson is founder of Real Life Yoga,
a movement to help real people bring a
little, or a lot, of yoga into their real lives.
Join her and John C. Parkin, the creator of
F*** It Therapy: the ultimate spiritual way,
for a week of yoga in the gorgeous Italian
countryside this September. Find out more
at: reallifeyoga.netom mind