By Patric Watzman

Booch and Yoga: A Match Made In Nirvana

Trying to answer the riddle of why yogis are so into ‘booch

Yoga and kombucha often seem to go hand in hand. Usually where one is found, the other isn’t far behind. We tried to figure out why.

Go to any yoga class, or studio, and besides the wonderful array of mat designs, variations on hot pink gym wear, essential oils to smell, and the veritable bazaar of organic, non-gmo bamboo jewelry, handmade by villagers in Tanzania, where the proceeds go to, and you’ll notice something other than the fact that you once used to be able to touch your toes. There’s kombucha everywhere.

It’s found in the hands of the yogis, the teachers, in the cafes downstairs, and in the little for-sale beverage coolers right in the studio itself. Yogis seem to be as obsessed with this stuff as we are. And you guessed it, a lot of us are yogis too. What gives?

To be truly honest, it’s always hard to say why one crowd tends to take to this one thing, or others don’t, or to predict accurately who will go for one thing or another. Some people are paid very highly to try and figured all that out. While it may be above our paygrade, we have some ideas what’s going on here.

First, yogis and tea have always tended to go hand in hand. India is one of the motherlands of tea, and the ancient yogis made and drank all types of medicinal, and standard teas, frequently combining the benefits of both medicinal herbs and tea. What we have come to know as a chai mixture is this very idea.

Yogis are all about things in their purest state, which is after all, one of the yogic ideals. Organic, raw, nature-fermented tea that bestows antioxidant and probiotic benefit naturally upon its consumer as part of the life cycle, often blended with medicinal herbs and juices is pretty ‘yoga’.

In addition to this, yogis are all about balance, and taking care of their bodies, finding center, and letting go. Consult the yogic texts and this is the true natural state of life, balance, and anything that brings you any step closer to it should be sought.

In an recent interview with Seek North, the esteemed yogi Dr. Brian P. Ramos had this to say: “I’m a regular drinker (of kombucha)... and it’s a great way to stimulate probiotic processes, and reduce oxidative stress”. Read the interview -here-.

And wouldn’t you know it? That’s exactly what regular exercise and meditation, both components of yoga, have been found to do. It sounds kind of like ‘booch could be considered a yoga steroid.

Lastly, how about a story? Shiva is a Hindu God considered to be the patron saint of yoga, for lack of a better term. Shiva is the God of Creation and Destruction, which seems weird to our Western minds, in that there would be one person lording over two opposing things.

Only, in Hinduism, the ending of one thing isn’t an end, but merely laying the foundation for the next thing to come. Nothing can be created without first breaking something down, or building over it in the very process of creation. And there would be no space for creation, if things didn’t first make way for it. Shiva is the God of both, because they are the same thing, the same cycle. And Shiva is the only deity in any religion ever pictured dancing in this cycle.

The tea leaves are plucked away, and turned into tea. Bacteria eats away at the components of the tea, releasing probiotics, vitamins, amino acids, and a whole host of other things, again and again, until the cycle is stopped. It’s then drunk by us, and turned into things out body needs.

Inside one bottle of ‘booch is a microcosm of Shiva’s dance - creation through destruction, over and over, and the whole environment made from it. Just as in yoga, up dog leads to down dog, sweat leads to release, muscles stretching lead to growth.

How could could a yogi resist? May we have this dance?