I was sitting near the Pacific Beach in San Diego this week. I was there to raise money for my non-profit Mind Body Solutions and also to see my yoga teacher. So much of the story that led to Mind Body Solutions started in Southern California.
I had some time to kill so I decided to watch the circus that cruises the PB Boardwalk. I saw a lot of surfboards and skateboards and roller blades and vintage 1-speed bikes (they must be the new cool thing). Everyone was wearing outfits. Shirtless skateboarder in baggy shorts with their t-shirts hanging from their back pockets, funky wet suits, and lots of very short shorts with assortments of outrageous tops….all the outfits making an appeal for uniqueness. Only the tourists weren’t wearing a story on their bodies. I also saw a lot of skin, in all colors and wrinkles and sun creases, including a lot of shirtless males with sculpted pectoral muscles that looked to be posing for a photograph.
There is a lot to laugh at in Southern California, but there is also something wonderful. People show off their bodies, all types and shapes. Sure you had the “perfect” people, but there truly was an assortment. People of all ages and body types wearing bikinis and Speedos, sunglasses and skimpy running gear.
That is part of the beauty about Southern California. Despite the vanity and all the real-life stereotypes, there is a beautiful freedom of bodies. Every body deserves the sun, deserves the water, deserves the air. Every body deserves to feel more alive.
It is not a coincidence that my yogic path, the one that evolved into Mind Body Solutions, began in Southern California, the place where all bodies get to participate. That is where I found my yoga teacher Jo Zukovich back in 1991. I was able to jump into yoga, knowing that I was only one of many, many stories cruising down the Boardwalk