Pose of the Month: Vrischikasana (Scorpion Posture)

You can see how this posture got its name; it looks just like a scorpion. There are two versions of Vrischikasana. The first one is done from Forearm Balance, or Pinca Mayurasana. This is an easier version of Scorpion to balance in, but it also requires more stretch in the shoulders. The second version is done from Handstand. It is useful to play with both of them.

Prerequisites: You need strength, shoulder flexibility and a deep back bend to do Scorpion.

• Strength: There are two separate areas of strength necessary for Vrischikasana: One is core and the other is shoulders. You can build strength in both of these areas at the same time by practicing your ability to hold the various plank positions. There are four versions of Plank Pose on your hands: forward, to the right side, to the left side and Reverse Plank. In the beginning, try holding each one for 20 seconds. Build up to being able to hold each one for a minute. You can also try holding Plank Pose on your forearms.

• Shoulder flexibility: To do Scorpion and keep your shoulders and your rotator cuff safe, you need to work on stretching your arms overhead. You should be able to stretch your arms overhead and have them be in a straight line with your body without arching your back. If you cannot do this, it is important to work on stretching your shoulders by doing poses like Warrior III with your hands on a ledge, or in Down Dog.

• Back bends: As you can see in my Scorpion, I cannot get my feet to my head, yet. So, it is not necessary to be able to do so to work on the pose, but you should be pretty strong in your Wheel. Try practicing Wheel against the wall. Start by placing your wrist creases at the corner of the wall and the floor. When you lift up into Wheel, move your chest in the direction of the wall. If your chest can touch the wall, you can begin to work on coming down on your forearms in Wheel. Press your elbows against the wall and begin to move your chest toward the wall. Camel is another great pose that will help with your Scorpion. More than Wheel, Camel will also work to strengthen your abs. From Camel, you can progress to what is often called Pigeon Droppings. This is where you drop back from Camel to your hands.

• Arm balances: No matter which of the two Scorpion versions you try, you should be pretty comfortable in Forearm Balance and in Handstand. This doesn’t mean that you have to be able to balance in these poses in the middle of the room, but you should be relatively strong in each one of these at the wall.

Remember not to rush the pose. Take your time and enjoy the process. Set small, achievable goals for yourself and celebrate each time you reach one. You don’t want to get stung by forcing yourself into Scorpion!

Pose of the Month: Kasyapasana (Half Bound Lotus Side Plank)

The pose dedicated to the sage Kasyapa.

Any of the postures dedicated to a sage are among the most difficult poses to work on. They are often arm balances like Kasyapasana, and they take persistence. They are also among the most gratifying to achieve because of the hard work and dedication you have to put in to get them.

You already know yoga is transformational: The practice strengthens your body, focuses your mind, and tempers your nervous system. But the most powerful shift occurs when you realize you can do something you didn’t think was possible. And when you exceed your own expectations, you feel a sense of empowerment that flows into every facet of your life.

For many students this occurs when they finally achieve an arm balance. Watching someone perform a challenging pose can be inspiring, and they may make it look deceptively easy. The process of breaking down a posture and working on its individual parts can be a fun challenge if you allow it to be.

Kasyapasana is a combination of Side Plank and Half Lotus with a bind. Most arm balances require core and shoulder strength. But this arm balance also requires hip and shoulder flexibility. The other unusual thing about this particular arm balance is that in most poses that include Half Lotus, the hip is flexed. This makes it easier to bind the foot. Kasyapasana makes it more challenging by extending the hip.

To work on this arm balance, we will work on the following poses:

For the core strength: Side Plank and Side Plank with Tree Variation

About Me

I started doing yoga in 1980. Someone recommended a yoga class to help me relax. So, I signed up.

I don't know if I had a choice back then, but I landed in an Iyengar class with a fabulous teacher by the name of Connie Fernandez. (She moved to New Mexico in the mid-1980s, and I lost touch with her. If anyone knows of her whereabouts, I would love to let her know how much she inspired me!) She used to read us stories while we were in headstand to help pass the time. My favorite story was "The Face of Jesus on a Tortilla." That was probably a 10-minute headstand!

My only interest in yoga back then was purely physical. It did help me to relax, but it also helped me stay in shape between seasons of whatever sport I was into: biking, snow boarding, running, hiking, surfing and windsurfing.

After Connie moved, I floated around to find another yoga teacher. Soon, I discovered that Joan White, one of the top Iyengar teachers in the US, lived very close to me. I started taking classes at her house. It was great! If there were other styles of yoga making their presence known, I was unaware of them. I loved the precision and alignment of Iyengar Yoga.

When I turned 40, I hit my midlife crisis. I quit my job teaching Woodshop at Germantown Friends School after 18 wonderful years there. I moved out of the house that I was literally born in and where I lived my entire life, and my husband and I adopted a sweet little boy from Korea! Suddenly, I was a stay-at-home mom in Bucks County, and I didn't quite know what to do with myself. Fortunately, I knew enough yoga to have a home practice, but I needed a teacher and some adult contact for myself. I found Vidyaa Yoga Studio, a local studio with childcare! Who cared that it was Power Yoga (vinyasa style with heat). I was happy to have found a place to practice and a community of friends. At Vidyaa, I also uncovered my desire to become a yoga teacher. That was back in 1999. In 2000, I became certified to teach Power Yoga under Cassandra Kish and have been teaching ever since.

Surprisingly, after all of my Iyengar classes, I loved Power Yoga. I loved the challenge and the flow, but I noticed that some areas of my flexibility weren't improving. I knew quite a bit about alignment from my previous practice, but that was from the point of view of a student. As a teacher, I needed to know more. So, I took an Iyengar teacher training course with Theresa Rowland from Studio Yoga in Madison, NJ. That helped answer my questions of "why?" and "how?" As my knowledge grew, so did my awareness of other styles of yoga. I studied Ashtanga yoga with Shari Simon of Sun Dog (even before there was a Sun Dog Studio), and when she sponsored David Swenson to come to town, I studied with him.

As we know, the only constant in the universe is change. So, from Vidyaa, I moved with my friends Melinda Drellich and Susan John to Flip Dog. I continued to teach and study and grow. When Anusara yoga came into the area, I studied that, too. I did teacher trainings and Immersions with Sue Elkind and Naime Jezzeny of Dig, and with Michelle Synnestdvedt of Prasad, not to mention studying with John Friend. In time, I became an Anusara-Inspired teacher. I loved the heart-opening qualities of the practice and the interweaving of the spiritual concepts into the physical practice.

Another change occurred when Flip Dog closed and I moved to the Solebury Club and to Yogaphoria. And here I am, 30 years later, still studying, practicing and teaching. Along the way I have studied a lot of different styles with a lot of different teachers, some local and some nationally known. I have learned a lot from each one and I am indebted to each and every one of them. I have learned that there are a lot of ways to do poses; each way has its benefits and trade-offs. That gives me a lot of tools in my tool kit.

Another benefit of 30 years of practice, besides a lengthy bio, is that I have worked through my share of injuries and good and bad times with my own practice. I've torn my hamstring three times, and I broke my foot and was on crutches for 12 weeks (but still practiced and taught, which is just one of the reasons why I ask my student teachers to learn to teach a class without practicing along with your students, because one day you might be forced to, and if you don't already know how then you're sunk). I also have some personal experience with scoliosis and arthritis and menopause ;-). There were times when I felt that I was a fraud as a teacher because of my personal setbacks and my own physical limitations and felt that I should quit. Over the course of my practice I have both loved and hated different poses at different times. I remember when my hamstrings were tight and I thought I'd never be able to touch the floor. Then I tore my hamstring and gave up caring and humbly started over. I can't tell you when I finally was able to touch the floor, but I know that I can now do it anytime and it so doesn't matter. One of my favorite Ramanand Patel quotes is "I've been to the floor and back, so I can tell you, God is not in the floor!" I still can't do a handstand in the middle of the room, but I am getting closer because I keep working on it. Some day I will be able to do it (or I won't and it, too, won't matter). Over the years I have also become more and more interested in the philosophical and spiritual aspects of my practice, as anyone who comes to my classes can attest. Still, I would have to say that my strengths as a teacher lie in my ability to read the body and see what is going on physically.

A word in Sanskrit that has a lot of meaning for me is "Abhyasa." The word Abhyasa means a serious practice, continued over a long period of time without interruption. I've kept at this practice for 30 years. If there is a period of time when I can't or don't practice, I feel it, and when I do return to my practice, I feel as if I'm coming home. That has sustained me, over time, more than anything else.

Most of what we know about yoga, we owe to B.K.S. Iyengar

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Mr. Iyengar on August 20th. B.K.S. Iyengar was one of the founding fathers of modern yoga as we know it in the West.

Iyengar was sickly as a child, and he credited yoga with helping him gain his good health. His method of yoga was to use props to support the body to put it into the best possible alignment so that the postures and their benefits were accessible even to those with physical limitations. So, if you have ever used a block or a strap, or even a yoga mat, you have benefited from the yoga of Mr. Iyengar.

I have a favorite quote from Mr. Iyengar. I couldn't put my hands on it in time for this newsletter, but it went something like this:

Attention to alignment in asana is discipline; discipline leads to perfection and perfection is god.

To me this means we should show up regularly for our practice. We should strive to do the best with what we have and not worry about what someone else has or can do. If we do this with our whole hearts and with undivided attention, then we will shine with an inner light and know inner contentedness and bliss.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice makes perfect. How many times have you heard that before? But is it true?

I had a guitar teacher who used to say, "Perfect practice makes perfect."

I was learning to play scales on my guitar, and I had trouble with certain finger positions. My instructor asked me to practice picking up speed. I could play certain parts pretty fast. I would go along playing smoothly, and then I would stumble over this particular pattern. He stopped me and said to slow everything down again and keep going over the part I was having trouble with until I could get it perfectly. I could go only as fast as I could play it perfectly. He said that if I kept playing it the way I was practicing it, I would simply reinforce the same mistake over and over, and that is how I would play it. It made sense to me, and my ability to play those particular patterns improved.

The same thing happens in our yoga practice. We want to get our hamstrings to stretch more and we keep trying, but we don't seem to be getting anywhere. When this happens, you have to stop and look at what you are doing.

The first thing you have to ask yourself is are you being consistent? It takes repetition and consistency to change a pattern or habit, to lengthen your hamstrings or to deepen a back bend, let's say.

The other thing you have to look at is how are you practicing? Are you trying to speed ahead to get somewhere but stumbling over certain parts?

Often when we aren't progressing in our practice, it's because we are doing something wrong; we are out of alignment somewhere. That's the perfect time to slow down and really pay attention to what we are doing and how we are doing it.

One of the most common problems in folding forward is rounding in the back rather than hinging at the hips. As long as we round in our backs, our hamstrings will not be getting the stretch they need to lengthen. But, most students either don't know that they are rounding in their backs, or they don't want to back up and sit up straighter because they feel like they are not folding forward. They tend to want to skip over that part.

Every time I felt stuck in my yoga practice, where I felt that I wasn't making progress, the thing that helped the most was slowing down, backing up and starting over. By doing so, I was able to notice where I was stumbling over certain parts. I could smooth them out and practice them more perfectly. This is where progress is made.

It's not simply repeating something over and over. It's how we repeat the thing we are trying to practice.

Whenever you feel stuck in your yoga practice; slow down, back up and really pay attention to what you are doing and how you are doing it.

See if perfect practice makes perfect for you. And then settle in and practice.

Can you see through your yoga pants?

Please don't be offended by the title for this blog post. I view it as a public service announcement. Do you know if your yoga pants are sheer enough to see through? Have you ever thought about it? Did you ever think about what happens to the fabric of your yoga pants as it stretches when you bend? If you don't know and you care, you might want to read my article below.

How sheer are your yoga pants?

Can you see through your yoga pants?

A while back there was a bit of a scandal regarding yoga pants made by the company lululemon. The scandal involved yoga pants that you could see through. Apparently women were appalled that you could see through their $80 yoga pants when they bent over. I suppose that you would expect that your expensive, specially made yoga pants would cover you. I get that.

As yogis, we spend a fair amount of time bent forward with our butts up in the air. Usually we are so busy trying to touch our toes or get our heads to our knees that the last thing we are thinking about is whether our butts are covered or not. But, let me ask you this: Can you see through your yoga pants when you bend over in Downward Facing Dog or Standing Forward Bend? Do you know? Have you ever checked? You should. Or, ask a trusted friend to check for you. You might be surprised.

As a yoga teacher, I spend a lot of time walking around yoga studios adjusting and assisting people. I see a lot of people in Down Dog and lying down in Cobbler's Pose. Every week I see people who are wearing sheer yoga pants. Your pants might look opaque when you are standing upright, but as the fabric stretches over your knee or your buttocks, it thins out. It's pretty amazing how sheer some pants can get when they are stretched.

Now, I am a trained professional and ultimately I don't care.  It's not anything I haven't seen before. And most of the time I am checking on your alignment and your breath and not looking at your yoga pants one way or another. But, every once in a while I am surprised at how much I can see!  I wonder if you care.  Some people don't. But if you go to the grocery store after class, or to the hair salon, it might be a different story.  It's not like I can say anything right then, and there is nothing you can do about it in the moment, either. I wouldn't want to embarrass anyone. But I do recommend you do a pants check. You can either bend over in front of a mirror, or in front of a trusted friend. Or, before you get dressed, take one of your favorite pair of yoga pants and grab one of your canned goods from your pantry, something with a printed label.  Put the can inside your yoga pants and stretch the fabric tight over the can. Can you read the label? If you can, OH MY! That's pretty sheer! If you can't, your butt is covered. Those are good yoga pants!

Two pairs of yoga pants. Are all pants created equal?

You can actually read the label through these yoga pants!

These yoga pants will cover your butt!

Now, as for the guys....  Oh, can I actually go there?  I don't know.  I'll have to think about it!  That may be another blog post!

Surrender

I love my job! I love helping people by teaching yoga. I love sharing the stuff I am working on and the insights I have gained over the years of practice. I particularly love training people to become yoga teachers. It is such a transformative process to watch someone who loves to practice yoga turn around and share why they love it so much.

In the process of their learning, I ask my teacher trainees to prepare classes and quotes and themes. They all share such wonderful  and tender parts of themselves. The things that we share as yoga teachers are often the very things we are working on ourselves.

One theme that a lot of us need work on is the theme of surrendering. It is a great topic for a yoga class and for life as we often have to embrace change.  I also talked about surrender last week as it relates to letting go and relaxing in Savasana. This past week, one of my students read something about the topic of surrender that resonated with us all so much, we asked her to share it. Thanks, Brina. Here it is:

"When dogs play ball, they often want to repeat the joy of running after the ball again and again. Some dogs cling to the ball, not understanding that to keep playing, they must let go. When I desire to maintain an experience, I may get so attached to it I block the receipt of the very thing I want."

"Letting go of what I desire is the way to receive it. As I let go, I give over to spirit and trust that my desired outcome, or something better, will come back to me. Clinging stops the law of circulation.  the cycle of giving and receiving."

What are you clinging onto? Maybe it is the very thing that you need to release in order to invite more abundance into your life. What do you think? I'd love to hear your comments below!

Yoga for Plantar Fasciitis

I often get asked about yoga for various minor ailments.  One of them is plantar fasciitis.

From the Mayo clinic:
Plantar fasciitis (PLAN-tur fas-e-I-tis) is one of the most common causes of heel pain. It involves pain and inflammation of a thick band of tissue, called the plantar fascia, that runs across the bottom of your foot and connects your heel bone to your toes.

Plantar fasciitis commonly causes stabbing pain that usually occurs with your very first steps in the morning. Once your foot limbers up, the pain of plantar fasciitis normally decreases, but it may return after long periods of standing or after getting up from a seated position.

Plantar fasciitis is particularly common in runners. In addition, people who are overweight and those who wear shoes with inadequate support are at risk of plantar fasciitis.

Here are some simple exercises you can do that may help:

1. Massage the bottom of your foot with a tennis ball.  Do this while standing and set a timer for 5 minutes.  Less than that just isn't enough.  Some people say to use a golf ball you keep in the freezer.  Because the tennis ball is softer, it may be easier to roll.  If you can tolerate a hard golf ball, go for it.  Because you have 5 minutes, work your whole foot–the heel, ball of the foot and arch. Vary the pressure.  Do both feet, 5 minutes each foot. Your other foot will thank you.

2. Pick things up with your toes, such as the golf ball or marbles, or scrunch up a tea towel with your toes. This strengthens the arch. One of the causes of plantar fasciitis is weak arches. Often, this can be caused by wearing shoes with too much arch support and walking on engineered, smooth surfaces.  Wearing shoes with good arch support may relieve the symptoms, but it doesn't get at the root of the problem.

3. You might not be able to do this one at home unless you have a 45-lb weight plate hanging around the house. So, head on over to the gym. You may need to bring your yoga mat with you as you will need to kneel on the floor. Find a quiet corner. Sit on your heels with your legs parallel and your toes pointing straight back. This pose is called Vajrasana. Have someone place a 45-lb. weight plate on your heels and calves. The plate should be pressing on your heel exactly at the same point as the pain is. Sit back on the weight plate. Try to sit for a few minutes, up to 5, but not longer. Some people may not be able to do this because of the pressure on the heel can be intense. But the way it works is that it relieves pressure on the plantar fascia. Some people love this.

I have never had plantar fasciitis, but my husband has.  He swears by the Strassburg sock.

The yogic version of the Strassburg sock is to do Pyramid Pose with your front foot up the wall:

Let me know if this works for you.  Leave a comment below!

Santosha: Fortunate? Unfortunate?

Santosha is the Sanskrit word for contentment and the second of the five Niyamas, or self practices. It is hard to find contentment. Modern marketing and advertising techniques are designed to make us want more, to be discontented with what we have. Most of us practice contentment when things are going our way, when things are good. It is so easy to be content under those circumstances. The trick is being content when things are not going your way, when you are having a bad day. How can we find contentment? How do we practice Santosha?

We have all heard the following statements about practicing contentment:

When life serves you lemons, make lemonade.
Be happy with what you've got.
I complained about not having shoes until I saw a man with no feet.
It is better to want what you have than to have what you want.

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali writes that "Superlative happiness arises from practicing contentment." Samtoshaad anuttamah sukha-laabhah. Yoga Sutra 2.42

The process is to not to be content but rather to practice contentment. These are the steps:
1) Notice you're practicing being discontented.
2) Make a decision to practice contentment.
3) Here's the yogic key: don't think of something that makes you content. That something is somewhere else, or someone else, other than where you are and what you are doing; it is a way of becoming less present. Instead, simply be content with where you are and what you are doing, even if it isn't what you wanted to have happening in that moment. Practice contentment. This practice not only makes you content, it makes you more present. It is about you being present to your own life, by being present within your own self This is what makes it easy for Patanjali to fulfill his promise.

I'd to share my favorite story about contentment. It is called Fortunate? Unfortunate?:

Fortunate, Unfortunate?

There once lived a farmer. He lived on a farm with his wife, his son and one horse that the family had raised from a colt. The family planned to enter the horse in the annual county fair and hoped it would win prizes that could lead to breeding opportunities. This would ensure a nice future income for the farmer and his family.

The night before the fair, a violent storm swept over the countryside. When the farmer and his family awoke early the next morning, they found that the fences had been blown down. Their prize stallion was nowhere to be found. The farmer's wife was beside herself with despair. The neighbours came and joined in the wife's grief.

"What terrible misfortune has befallen us!" cried the wife. "Yes, yes, this is most unfortunate,"the neighbours agreed. But the farmer said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

A week passed and the farmer and his family were sitting at the breakfast table. Looking out the kitchen window they saw a herd of horses galloping toward the farm. It was their faithful stallion, leading five horses and a little filly behind him. He had found a herd of wild mares, and now he was bringing them home. The farmer's family ran out to open the corral gate for the horses. The farmer's wife was overjoyed and exclaimed, "What a fortunate turn of events, this is unbelievable!" The neighbours rushed over exclaiming, "How fortunate you are!" The farmer just said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

Over the next weeks the farmer and his son were busy training the new horses. One day the son was thrown by one of the wild horses. He suffered a bad fall and broke many bones. The farmer's wife was very upset. Between her sobs she said, "We never should have let those wild horses in; this is a most unfortunate accident! My poor son." The neighbours came to commiserate with the wife about her misfortune. And the farmer said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

Two days later the king's soldiers came by the little farm. The king had declared war on an adjacent country and the soldiers had orders to draft all able-bodied young men into the army. On seeing the farmer's son with both legs and both arms broken, not to mention several ribs fractured and numerous lacerations on his face and head, they left him home and continued on to the next family. The farmer's wide wept with relief, crying, "How lucky we are! This is most unfortunate." The neighbours most of whom had had sons taken off to war, said, "You are indeed most fortunate." The farmer said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

Some months passed. The farmer's son was recovering nicely; he was able to walk, albeit with a cane. A messenger from the kings palace dropped by the farm to inquire about the health of the son. Seeing the son's improved condition he stated that by order of the king, the son must come at once to the palace to work in the gardens and stables. There was a shortage of workers at the palace due to the war. What could the family do but let their son go? The wife was bitterly angry and cursed the king for his unfairness. "How unfortunate we surely are! We have lost our only son and there will be no one to help us with the farm now." The neighbours came by to console the wife, murmuring, "What an unfortunate turn of events." The farmer just said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

The king had a beautiful daughter. One day she looked out of her window and saw the handsome new gardener. She fell in love with him and went to her father and said, "Father, I have found the man I wish to marry. Please make it happen!" The king, unable to resist a request from his lovely daughter replied, "Of course, it shall be done."

The next day a messenger was sent from the palace to the farm, bearing a wedding invitation for the farmer and his wife, as well as an invitation for them to come live permanently at the palace. Can you imagine the reaction of the farmer's wife? She was ecstatic and could hardly contain her joy. Jumping up and down she laughed, "This is incredible, how fortunate!" The neighbours exclaimed, "Indeed, this is a very fortunate turn of events!" And the farmer, as usual, said, ...!"

(a story from Jivamukti Yoga)

How about you? Are you fortunate? unfortunate? Shall we wait and see?

Namaste,

Karin

Giving and Receiving - Is it a fair exchange?

Last week I was talking about Aparigraha, or nonhoarding.  I pointed out how, in most yogic texts, there is always this promise of the great things that will happen to you if you wholeheartedly practice the Yamas.

For example, for Ahimsa, or nonviolence, the Yoga Sutras say, "All others will cease to feel hostility in the presence of one who is firmly established in ahimsa."  Y.S. 2.35.  Or, for Satya, truthfulness, "All words and actions bear full fruit when the yogi is firmly established in truthfulness." Y.S. 2.36.  For Asteya, non-stealing, "Great riches present themselves freely when you are firmly established in asteya."  Y.S. 2.37.  For Brahmacarya, or celibacy, "One firmly established in celibacy gains potency."  Y.S. 2.38.  And finally, for Aparigraha, "By the observation of aprigraha, the yogi makes his life as simple as possible and trains his mind not to feel the loss or lack of anything. Then everything he really needs will come to him at the proper time."  Y.S. 2.39

Whenever I read about the Yamas, I generally agree that it is a good idea to work on them.  (We already discussed the celibacy issue;).  But then you get to the great promises that these practices give and I always wonder if they are realistic. If I truly practice non-hoarding, will everything I really need come to me at the proper time?  How can this be true when they are so many needy and struggling people in the world?

Maybe an important part of the question is how much do I really need as opposed to how much do I want?  And, perhaps more importantly, what do I need to do in exchange?  I don't think the yogic texts mean that I can sit around waiting to win the lottery. We each have work to do.  We have to have some form of fair exchange.

I was reading Brain Pickings, a weekly blog I subscribe to, and I came upon this article on Amanda Palmer.  In her fascinating TED talk, Ms. Palmer talks about her stint as a street performer and the skills she developed there in asking for things to have her needs met.  She talks about asking, giving, receiving, trust and the fairness of the exchanges she is involved in.  You should listen to the talk.  It is very interesting. Amanda also wrote a book about her experiences called "The Art of Asking, How I learned to stop worrying and let other people help." It struck me that perhaps this is what the yogic texts meant when they talked about things showing up in our lives unbidden.  Although, Amanda does ask for what she needs, the things she needs do show up.

Something else I also enjoyed: You can also listen to Amanda reading a poem by the Polish Poet Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska titled "Possibilities".  From the Brain Pickings site:  "Amanda’s music, like Brain Pickings, is free and supported by donations - a heartening celebration of the creative possibilities that open up when we actively stand behind the things we prefer; when we choose the absurdity of supporting artists over the absurdity of not supporting artists."

I hope you enjoy the TED Talk. Let me know what you think.  Comment below.