“Fuck You” Mudra Enlightens Midtown Fort Collins Yoga Students
This week local yoga teacher, Sushineguruji responded after hearing one of her students say, “It’s all good,” that today’s class message would be about embracing the “Fuck You” in life. She quoted, “The path to heaven is through hell,” from famed yogi Sri Swami Satchitananada. She continued to say, “We have to embrace the shittiest parts of our nature in order to transcend them.” Part of the class involved gazing into the eyes of another participant with the “fuck you” mudra, and fully embodying the personal meaning of this sentiment to cleanse the soul of repressed anger. Another exercise involved all yoga students in a circle bowing in prayer position to each and every person in turn saying, “fuck you.”
Some responded with laughter. “It was just so absurd,” said Ridley, a participant who decided to try yoga for the first time. While Bob, a class regular said, “I like it, I mean I realized if I could find something I hated about everyone in this class, then maybe I could also find something I could love in each person too. And then it just hit me. Dude, we really are ALL ONE! This was a powerful teaching, man. I am forever changed.”
The class ended with the mantra, “I bow to the shittiest part of your nature.” This was explained to be an important step in being present to the totality of life experience, and the potent shadow mantra to the customary, “Namaste,” which is often translated as “I bow to the light within you.”
Yoga student Moonbeam stated, “I’ll be honest and say at first I was shocked, but Sunshineguruji always knows the right thing to say. I feel truly cleansed and more enlightened to who I would like to say ‘Fuck you’ to now.” Another participant, Amber, shared, “I felt so much grace after embracing my shittiness. While holding the “fuck you” mantra, I wanted to pull Orion’s stinky dreadlocks out of his head and punch him in the face! However I realized I was just transferring feelings onto him from my former lover Bryce for cheating on me, and that I actually really love Orion. We made love afterwards, and it was truly cosmic.” Orion responded, “She’s really sexy when she’s pissed off.”
Will this become yoga’s newest trend? Sunshinegruruji said that she currently has a “Fuck You Yoga” teacher training program that is eligible for Yoga Alliance yoga teacher continuing education credits. There will be an article in next month’s Yoga Journal about more of the profound transformations from the practice of “Fuck You Yoga.” Be sure to look for it at the Fort Collins Food Co-op.