Photo: ©Madison Moross

The Real Life is Real Yoga Practices Index

I had this constant battle between my head and my heart, until I realized that they were connected to each other, and something much larger

BY MADISON MOROSS

An accident with pesticides when I was a toddler, followed by heavy anti-biotic treatment thereafter, left my immune system unable to support itself.

Together with the emotional rigors of growing up in an unstable home, I developed an auto-immune disorder and struggled with severe asthma, allergies, and infection in virtually ever system in my body, as well as psychosomatic illness that led me feeling hopeless of recovering. From the age of 2-20, I saw every doctor in the book, it seems, but I kept getting worse.

In college, I decided to start taking my health into my own hands. I started doing my own research, seeking out alternative treatments, becoming aware of what made my body feel good and what didn’t. I began eating differently, living differently, thinking differently.

Slowly, I began to heal.

I began noticing that what seemed to be good for my body, was also what calmed my mind. I started seeing that what nourished me, also tended to benefit the world around me, and visa-versa. I began to understand, through experience, the symbiotic relationship of nature, and how we as humans can fit into it, rather than work against it.

I have eliminated medication from my life, and no longer suffer from asthma; as my body rebalances, I am becoming less reactive to allergens, and despite being told I would not be able to, I am writing and dancing.

Together with two dear friends and a growing community, I recently started a community project/organization called The Big P (Picture) Project, whose mission is to re-define sustainability as something more than just “preserving the planet,” but sustaining our relationships, communities, businesses, environment, bodies, minds, and spirits, through recognizing the interconnectedness of them all.

Academics might call it transdisciplinarity, while a spiritualist might call it universal consciousnesses. We believe they are one in the same. We believe that every action in our individual lives is a vote and seed towards sustaining our people, planet, and pocket-books as part of the same big picture; and that sustaining the soul is the most important, yet most often neglected, part of health, happiness and sustainability.

Website TheBigPProject.com

Column Madison Moross, Elephant Journal

Twitter: @thebigpproject, @MadisonMoross
Facebook The Big P Project

The Magazine of Yoga 3×5 Interview

What?

What is the task you like to do best in your work?
Creative problem-solving. Like making something spectacular out of limited resources, or making “pretty” things “practical,” and practical things pretty.

What housework or domestic detail is most satisfying to do?
Cooking, especially with others.

What in light of your experience in life, should we not waste time on or worry about?
What other people think of us. And, how other people drive.

How?

How do you celebrate?
Spending time and eating good food with people I love. And dancing!

How do you learn?
By experience: Kinesthetically and through the creative process.

How do you prepare to do something?
I meditate on, not the outcome of it, but the state of mind in which I’d like to experience while doing that something.

Do?

Do you have a nemesis?
Fear.

Do you have a vocation?
I co-create and run The Big P Project, dance professionally, write and work at a wonderful vegetarian restaurant in Venice, CA. I have a passion for teaching somatic movement (movement for healing purposes) for those with illnesses and disabilities, as well as for Alternative Medicine. My hope is to help teach people how to heal themselves.

Do you have a plan?
A fluid and adaptable one. Ultimately, my plan is to keep learning how to trust the process, to serve the world, to love, and to share. I am about to begin a Master’s program in Ayurvedic Medicine and plan on becoming yoga-teacher certified, both of which I plan on integrating into a life of living and encouraging consciousness and sustainability. Beyond that, who knows!

Faves

Favorite magazine?
I don’t have one, but I like Whole-Living, Elephant Journal, various Yoga Magazines, and the Huffington Post, among others

Favorite work beverage?
Vardo Café’s Carob Date Smoothie!

Favorite relax thing?
Yoga followed by cooking – taking whatever’s around and improvising to make something delicious and original.

Fives

5 things about your workspace that make it good
1. The people
2. The aesthetic environment
3. That it is constantly evolving
4. It is fun
5. That my life is my work, and my work is my life. Therefore, if I love my life, then I love my work, and if I love my work… then “work” takes on a whole new definition.

5 people you want to collaborate with
1. The Dalai Lama
2. Michael Pollan (food author, who in my opinion is one of the most respectable cultural crusaders of our time).
3. Natalie Chase (who runs RED, a socially-responsible film-media-entertainment agency)
4. Anna Halprin (one of the most inspirational dancers, choreographers and teachers of the 20th century, as well as the pioneer for dance as a healing art)
5. Against the five people rule, but my friends and family.

5 songs from your current playlist
1. Don’t Worry, Be Happy, Bob Marley, always
2. Make You Feel My Love, Adele
3. Teardrop, Massive Attack
4. The High Road, Broken Bells
5. What Part of Forever, Cee-Lo Green

© 2011, The Magazine of Yoga, LLC.