Creating Connection – an Outlaw’s Imperative
We get a couple of consistent pieces of feedback at Outlaw Yoga…
“We hate it when you make us talk to a stranger!”
I even know which of you students come in right at the start time to take class so that you can avoid this often uncomfortable experience.
Hell, I’m really a bit of an introvert myself…
But in an increasingly disconnected world, one driven by technological tools that are driving a wedge between connecting with real-life people, doing the discipline of creating connection has never been more imperative.
When we connect physically – handshakes, high-fives, and hugs – oxytocin is released in the brain creating the preconditions for happiness and acceptance…when we connect face-to-face with another person we are often called to remember that we’re all in this together…that, in the words of Bob Marley, “when the rain falls, it don’t fall on one mans house.”
If you feel disconnected, do something to create connection…leave your phone in your car during class or while at dinner…come take the partner stretching workshop this weekend with someone you know; or, better still, be brave enough to partner with a perfect stranger…they are unlikely to bite, but they are likely to be going through some of the same shit that you are…
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Just the other night in class, two students began to kindle a friendship based on the mutual experience of their children being in the same class at school and going through some of the same difficult discussions…though they had seen each other many times, they were connecting in conversation for the first time that night…in yoga class.
Oh yeah…the second most received piece of feedback we get? “Thanks so much for making us connect with a stranger!”
Connection is the medicine that we all need, and we all have a responsibility to do our best to share it.
Turn your phones off – I promise you, your problems will wait 60 minutes while you’re in class, and another 6 minutes more while you make you’re way out of it…
Good luck, yogis!
Justin “Jud” Kaliszewski is an artist, adventurer, and the renowned creator of OUTLAW Yoga. Best-selling author of “The Outlaw Protocol – how to live as an outlaw without becoming a criminal,” and the children’s picture book “The Adventures of Babu – from there to here,” he creates connection by delivering transformational yoga-experiences across the country, and at the Outlaw Yoga Littleton studio. Take his class NOW at www.outlawyogaclub.com and find his writing and art at www.justinkaliszewski.com.