Don’t Be Afraid to go OM

The whole chanting in class thing used to make me nervous. Shy about my voice and determinedly non-woo, I wanted to leave the spiritual stuff out of the studio. It’s personal, right? Also, it just seems a little esoteric. And by esoteric I mean, weird. But, the thing is I noticed that I feel really good after the whole class lights up a nice loud om. I started giving myself over to ommming in the classes I attended, but I was still nervous about doing it in the classes I led. I thought my faithful students would think I finally floated off into yoga space oddity.

Finally one day I said to myself, “Fuck it. I like the om. I like the way it feels and screw it if they think I’m nuts.” Now, I always om at the end of class. Sometimes, when I have a particularly big group of students, I greedily make them om three or even five times – getting high on the sound vibration. I don’t ask my students if they want to do it, or give them an option. I NEVER ask them if they liked it. I’m sure some of them do like it. I know it probably makes some people uncomfortable. But maybe some of the folks who are still squirmy about it, like I once was, will be surprised at the way it makes them feel and let go and get into it.

So, if you are one of those cats who rolls your eyes at the ol’ om, I beseech you: Don’t knock it ’till you try it.

Om the divine sound on YouTube has some sweet om-ing illustrated with a bunch of weird stuff. Turn it up!*

– KT

Here are some tattoos not to get

Tamil (cartoon goth style)	Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi	Balinese (fave)	Tibetan

*The ghost of (Ronnie Van Zant compels you. )