Day before yesterday I was watching the film Surf's Up, guess I was feeling like some cartoons verses all the dramas I had been viewing recently. Was visiting my mom and thought I would look through her 'kids' dvd section (since the only 'kids movie' i currently only is just Tangled and Ive viewed it too death!) and I saw this movie sitting on her shelf. It was released in 2007 but i was boycotting it because at that time in my life I did not have an appreciation for animated films. So I was testing it out, and 1. I feel inlove, I MUST! own this movie!. But 2. and why I make this post is there was something very yoga in the film that really inspired me.
The 2 second premiss of the film is this young pengiun from Antartica (sp) 'Cody' fell in love with surfing as a hatchling when 'Big Z' - the world's greatest surfer in the film- came to Antartica and inspired Cody and became his hero. So when Cody was 17 or so he went to this made up penguin island were Big Z hailed from and went to join the surfing compitition. Now as far as the penguins knew at the time Big Z had a surf accident years ago and died, but Cody finds that his hero is actually alive and just in shame and hiding.
So at this point he is excited but then hurt that his hero isnt what he thought, and cody was just obessed with winning this Surf compitition, but wanted to know surfing from Big Z. Big Z starts to teach Cody but he wasnt learning 'cool' 'winning' stuff so got impaticent and careless. big Z in one scene was showing cody how to make a surf board was teaching his that every carving stroke of the board was important, have to have long smooth steady even strokes, going with the grain and focus on not 'making the board' so much as 'finding it' is the half a log. Cody just started hacking away and low and behold the thing broke in the water within 2 seconds.. so later he takes the slow approach and ends up making a winning board.
Phase 2 after the board was made Cody wanted to rush in the water and learn to start surfing, so Big Z kept him on the beach and was teaching him surfing, how to paddle and stroke, etc. Big Z was also teaching him how to hang loose and hang upside down and to have fun, but Cody just got angery that he wasnt in the water and pulled a practical prank on Big Z, trying to be a pill. Cody laughed and Big Z asked is he was havign fun adn Cody being smart alec_E said yes and then Big Z said: 'well then.. YOU PASS!" and they got on their boards and got in the waves.
Side stepping for a minute, I personally never saw the original 'Karate Kid', growing up i only saw 'The Next Karate Kid'.. however a few years ago I did see the Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith version (which that kid is the cutest little boy in the entire world, its a good thing he has amazing parents or else i would make it my goal to try and adapt him because is is sooo adorable!) But anywho.. in this film jackie Chan has Jaden coming over everyday to learn Karate and for days on end all he does all day is take his coat on and off.. and again he got really P.O.ed at Jackie Chan for not teaching him, but then we see jackie have him go through the motions with an invisible jacket and we see that those movents become his karate foundation moves.
Back to the penguins, Cody and Jaden are the same as Big Z and Jackie.. both boys are learning what they want and finding that karate and surfing are not jsut about the physical moves but its about head and mind and spirit, a lot like, you guessed it.. YOGA!
I have a lot of students wanting to learn more or do more, or people often ask me to show them 'cool moves', but Yoga is not about one arm stands to show off to your buddies, the asanas, the physical moves are such a teeny tiny part of yoga. Its all about mind and spirit! About growing beyond our previous environmental 'brainwashed' limitation (i say brainwashed because we all are,whether that is good or bad I am not here to judge, but we are all programmed from birth our speech and sense of taste what music we like, what sports we view, how to sit or slouch, etc...) But to start to be what we want, or just accept where we are, there is no right or wrong. Its not about action but about your attitude and mindset. Learning to just BE! Either accepting things as t hey are and learning peace and happiness, being content, or changing what we want to and then learning to accept things and learn peace and happiness and being content!
As we move through the physical practice we are really learning to condition our minds, to learn meditation and concentration, and how to be in the moment. The goal in the physical practice is to have the student focus solely on the pose they are in, focusing on each muscle in the pose and focusing on their breath in the pose, and with that quieting all outside thoughts in the mid and being there in that moment!
You see when you let go of the idea of 'winning' is when you will win!
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