The Hooping Manifesto: Hooping is Our Meditation

Out of all the tenets of the Hooping Manifesto, it's not surprising to me that I find myself wanting to examine this one first. I'm definitely one of those people who lives more in my head than in my body, and activities of the mind are my comfort zone. With a background in both ritual magic and Yoga (not at the same time, but that would be interesting!), I'm used to things like meditation, movement as a form of meditation, and sacred circles. I'm also a big fan of walking labyrinths as a meditation practice.

Something I've really become present to in the last few days of practice is that the hoop is my "sacred space". In ritual magic and certain religious practices, we designate sacred space as a place that is separate from our everyday concerns. In preparing it, we prepare ourselves for the working to be done, whether that is prayer and worship, self-improvement, healing, learning, or building up our spiritual community. Many see that space as a sacred circle, or sphere, encompassing us, providing protection, and delineating the boundary between the mundane world and the spiritual, magical world.

A Yoga mat is also its own type of sacred space. You bring your positive intentions to the mat, and you release your day to day concerns while you are on the mat. You learn to show up at the mat consistently as you create a daily Yoga practice that helps to sustain you.

A hoop is a very concrete way to represent sacred space. It's your own little boundary that surrounds you wherever you dance. You are its center and it contains only you (well, unless you're doing duo hooping, but that's another topic!).

Remember that bit in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back where Luke and Yoda are on Dagobah, and Luke is about to enter the cave in the forest as part of his training to become a Jedi Knight? Luke asks Yoda what is in the cave, and Yoda tells him "only what you take with you". Those were very wise words that are applicable to any kind of spiritual or meditative experience. What is inside the hoop? Only what you take with you.

I have discovered that I take lots of worries, judgments, and negative ideas about myself into the hoop. It's the sort of baggage we all carry from our pasts, where the unkind words of others stung too deeply, and taught us to hold on to the negative and worry about it coming to pass in one giant feedback loop of suffering.

Slowly, I have been working with the hoop to let go of these thoughts, at least for the span of time I'm hooping. I start by sitting down inside my hoop to do warm up stretches. As I stretch, and breathe, I remind myself of certain truths, inside my protected realm, my sacred circle, my hoop. You could call them affirmations, although I don't treat them quite so formally as that. Whenever worries, fears, judgments, or negative past experiences come up to bite me, I remind myself that they are not allowed inside my hoop. Sometimes I even visualize them bouncing off of its shiny sides. Boing! (It's easier to let go of nasty thoughts when you can laugh at them!) Usually by the time I'm warmed up and ready to dance, I have forgotten about all those negatives that were weighing me down. I'm free to find my flow. And that's what it's really all about.
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Drop Update: Today I have dropped the hoop a total of 12 times so far, bringing my total to 148. I'm feeling less pain in my left hip, and doing a lot more stretching both before and after my hooping. I'm also taking my time with the stretching, really slowing down and letting it become part of my meditative hooping practice.