#ILLUMINATE 01: The Power of Being Present with Destiny McLennan
I sat with yoga instructor (and friend 😊) Destiny McLennan in Pan Pacific park to talk about making yoga accessible to South LA and how to stay present during unsettling times.
I’m calling this an illuminate series. EBONY/ORO is all about illuminating blackness, black stories, black brands. I want to pose the question to you: what do you illuminate?
I think the main thing I want people to take away from a class that I teach is to just know it’s your practice. It’s your own body. So whatever I’m doing just recognize it for yourself. It’s your practice, feel it in your own body, don’t look at the person next to you, don’t be worried about what’s going on around you. I had to learn that myself, too.
What do you say to someone that might think they have to be very structured in order to do yoga the right way?
I love yoga because it’s so deeply meditative and personal. I always try to tell people to become present. Oftentimes you’ll hear me say this if you hear me teach a class, “the way that we show up on the mat is the way that we show up every day in our lives.” So if a pose is hurting or if it's intense, and we just hurry up and jump out of it, is that what’s going on in your everyday life? If a situation becomes intense, or if anything becomes painful or sensitive, how quickly do you react and respond?
I love that. It can be hard to stay present, especially during these times. What advice do you have for a person that’s having a hard time being present?
I say, just notice. Yes, we can tell ourselves to be present, yes we can tell ourselves to be aware in this moment but at the end of the day our minds wander naturally. So I often try to tell people not to judge themselves for it. Don't say, “Ugh! Why am I out of the zone right now? Why can’t I focus?” It’s ok! Just notice where your mind goes, you know? Maybe it goes to future thoughts, maybe it goes to past thoughts, just kind of notice where it goes and reflect on it later. At this moment, right now, you’re doing this. You're doing a yoga flow, you're meditating. Or, you’re working on an assignment, you're working on a paper or something. Be here now. Notice where your mind goes and then worry about it later. Take some time at the beginning or end of the day to reflect on those thoughts.
I’ve been reflecting a lot on community lately and what it means to me. The black community in a larger sense, and in the smaller sense, my family. What’s community to you?
When I think of community I think of a place where I feel welcomed and I feel 100% myself and I feel comfortable and I feel safe. For some people that may look like family, that may look like friends, and I think for me it's like a combination of the two. I think those that support you and let you be your true authentic self and you don’t feel judgement and you just feel safe and comfortable to be 100% yourself- those are the spaces where I feel the strongest sense of community.
A goal of mine is to get yoga in the black community more. There's so many opinions in the black community about yoga. I hope to one day open a studio in Inglewood or South LA and just make sure it's accessible to people in the community.