Can we talk please talk about Bunny Yoga? Omigod, I stumbled across the site last night – one of the communities put this picture up (see below) without artist attribution, and I fell to, hunting for him. The artist, it turns out, is Brian Russo, whom I previously knew pretty much nothing about, but am now crushing on a little bit artistically.

So this is not the first time that I’ve been brought to moist eyes by a cartoon – I’ll admit it has happened in the past (Mouseguard, anyone?) and unashamedly, too. But this was a different kind of moist eye. When I saw the bunnies in different asanas, I immediately and personally related. The focused expressions, the little round tummies, the little belly roll in forward bend – I immediately though, omigod, that’s me!

Ok, ok, so I do a regular yoga practice – about five days a week I hit the mat for 20 minutes in the middle of my day, and sometimes it’s the very best 20 minutes of my day. I do a home practice because it’s easy; I get to pick the level of exertion, what time and how long after I lay in meditation,* and whether or not I want company.** I can light candles if I want to. I can pet the cat when I’m supposed to be laying still in savasana and it’s no big deal. Also, I have no one to be self-conscious about my body in front of.

See, I’ve been doing this yoga thing off and on for roughly 13 years. And I still consider myself to be a beginner – sure, I’m bendier than the average bear, and I have pretty good strength. But I’m also still in the more basic poses and flows – it’s a lot of the six flexions of the spine and sun/moon salutations, with hardly any balances or long holds. And I’m a little pudgy, too – sometimes my body gets in its own way, and add in mobility issues,*** dude, I do not fold in half like the students in the yoga videos do. And often this kind of thing leaves me a touch self-conscious.


So, anyway, to see these rabbits, in all their sweet, lovely roundedness, doing yoga and (clearly) feeling as good as I do when I practice yoga, really hit me in the soft spot in my heart, bringing me just a little bit closer to the body acceptance that I so crave in myself. I would love to have prints of these to hang in my practice space, just to remind me that, really, it’s about the practice, not about the body that practices.

 

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*Ok, in an attempt to meditate, at least. That part of the practice is still a little shaky.
**Will Dearest usually joins me for yoga.
***The pain is under control for the first time in a decade, and that is a treat and a game-changer, for sure, but there will always be some mobility issues that cause me to modify some poses. I’m good with that – if it doesn’t hurt, I will work with it, and revel in the not hurting.