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Among the many a whole lot, if not 1000’s, of recaps written about Rihanna’s halftime performance at Super Bowl LVII, there may be one which is different. It includes no mention of her being a fashionista or her net value in dollars or how long her fans have been waiting for her next release. As an alternative, the Instagram post penned by a yoga and meditation teacher quietly emphasizes the simplicity and power that we witnessed in Rihanna on the world stage.
“I used to be watching it and I discovered that I felt really calm. I used to be noticing the way it landed in my body, and I believed, ‘Why am I feeling this?” says mother, wife, rest coach, and obvious Rihanna fan Octavia Raheem. “She looked so comfortable in her own skin that I felt that very same way taking a look at her. She just seemed alright with herself. Very authentic.”
And that moment when Rihanna sat down? Raheem says, “I used to be like, ‘Wow. I’m here for this.’”
(Photo: Getty Images)
Hours later, Raheem kept fascinated about it. As she was reading different accounts of the performance the subsequent morning, she noticed lots of them asserted Rihanna didn’t do enough. “‘I used to be like, ‘What?!’ And I believed, ‘That is all the things that’s the problem.’”
Then she read the comment, “I desired to see her shake her ass, not sit on it.”
That’s when Raheem felt compelled to put in writing her interpretation. “I believed that she did something form of legendary for girls and moms and Black women,” she says. “I realize it was on purpose. I do know to point out up with ease, there may be effort. And she or he was saying, ‘This the Rihanna you gonna get.’”
One in every of Raheem’s primary teachings is that “yoga takes us back to who we were before the world tells us who you were imagined to be.” What Rihanna expressed, says Raheem, is “‘I won’t be told who I’m. You can not tell me or contain me. I shall be me.’ In my mind, her standing in her authenticity is her embodying what yoga is teaching, which is how can we remember and access who we’re.”
That sentiment is precisely what may be felt upon reading Raheem’s Instagram post. There’s yoga here.
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About Our Contributors
Octavia Raheem is a wife, mother, and creator of Pause, Rest, Be and Gather. She is a rest coach and experienced yoga and meditation teacher and activist. She began practicing yoga in 1999 and has been teaching since 2007. With 10,000+ hours of coaching and teaching experience, she shares her wisdom and knowledge from a spot of embodiment. She is an actual, relatable, and visionary leader in the sector of rest, wellness, and yoga. As a teacher, creator, and coach, Octavia has a particular approach and voice. One which is warm, right down to earth, and likewise cosmic. Her teaching is grounded in her roots and real-life experience as a girl learning to like herself in addition to center her well-being, transformation, and liberation via storytelling, yoga, rest, meditation, and Yoga Nidra. Follow her at @octaviaraheem.
Renee Marie Schettler is a senior editor at Yoga Journal and has worked as an editor at The Washington Post,Real Easy magazine, and online media. She began studying yoga nearly 20 years ago with teachers in Latest York City who emphasized the difficult of finding precise alignment in a posture. Her understanding of yoga modified when she began learning from teachers who imagine the practice is less about how we execute the posture and more about whether we are able to give up into the stillness of it. She finds that editing, writing, and practicing yoga are each about becoming more aware of truth. She has been teaching yoga since 2017. Follow her at @reneemarieschettler.