The power of community is vibrant and growing, and witnessed in the wealth and a dearth of offerings.
(Yeah, I said dearth.)
From homegrown LIVE music events like YogiNation to a growing and thriving online community like YogaDownload.com, the power of community to create connection is real – I‘ve met some of you online yogis in real life in classes after meeting in cyberspace through yoga videos.
Whether from Facebook or another corner of cyberspace, every time I meet someone in person that I met online first, I am amazed and inspired.
“I can’t believe this is happening!” I exclaim as we embrace like long lost friends who never thought they’d see each other again.
See a community can exist online, or in a magazine, or across a collection of, largely, disassociated pockets across a city (as in a city like Denver with a studio for every dispensary), but connection has to happen in person.
Whether with yourself or others.
(Insert dirty joke here.)
Ok, I’ll do it myself…Community without connection is like having sex in cyberspace – possible, but not nearly as fulfilling…
That’s why I like to support communities that go a step further in creating conscious connection. This summer YogaDownload.com, YogiNation, and OUTLAW Yoga came together to do just that.
To walk the walk while we talked the talk…
What we learned was that as a community we have real creative power.
We don’t need a studio between us and our practice and we don’t need an industry between us and our favorite artists. The power of community is bolstered by entities like Yogadownload.com and Indiegogo who give us platforms to not just blindly consume what mainstream music companies, publishing houses, and corporate yoga companies tell us we must.
Want to start an event? Do. The community will support you…or it won’t. But you’ll know right away if an idea has viability if it receives the tangible vote of the community.
Want to write a book? Do. You don’t need publishing houses to thrive as an artist on Amazon – you just need talent…and discipline. (I say it like either are easy to produce consistently for me – they’re not).
Passion. If you’ve got it, the community will support you. Let them see you being you…fully…unreservedly…and know that in a community victory for one means victory for all.
When one of us wins, we all win…
That’s why I don’t just write and create, I help produce. As conscious consumers of art and yoga we have the power to be an integral part of projects and people that we believe in.
I couldn’t have produced my book The OUTLAW Protocol – How to Live as an Outlaw Without Becoming a Criminal without the support of the community. And we couldn’t have come together – ALL of us, you and me – to help produce my father KenK’s new CD, Everything So Beautiful. And we can’t make a Marco DiFerreira and Friends CD without your contribution (Check out his community campaign here).
As a community we have a chance to be part of something bigger than you and me separately by connecting…by coming together.
When we all sing, we all sound better.
I can’t play the ukulele so sweet that it brings tears to the eyes of even the toughest guys. But we ALL know a guy named Marco who can. And I know a Grammy caliber producer named Dave Preston who can mix and engineer him…I know an artist named Xiren that can make the CD cover art and yet another who can help us get the campaign started.
But none of us can do this alone.
We need you, you there at home or on your phone to read this and to reach into your heart and create…We need you to care about this project and this man named Marco who has played music for so many classes on the OUTLAW Yoga channel because like geese flying in formation cutting through the sky – in a community we can fly…further and faster…but only if we connect and do it together…
By Justin Kaliszewski
Justin Kaliszewski is a reformed meat-head and former amateur cage fighter. He brings a lifetime of travel and world's worth of experience in battling the ego to the mat. An avid student, artist, and treasure hunter, he infuses a creativity and perseverance into his teachings, along with a distinct blend of humor and wisdom that redefines what it means to be an Outlaw and a yogi...He teaches Outlaw Yoga across the country and is happy to call Denver home for now. Author of Outlaw Protocol: how to live as an outlaw without becoming a criminal, you can find him at www.outlawyoga.com.