Quick, name that song!

If you were around for the awesome 80s, you should be able to – without missing a beat – rattle off the title “What a Feeling,” the artist who made the song famous, Irene Cara, and the kick-butt movie it came from, Flashdance. And before I get any flack for loving the movie Flashdance, please remember that I am a product of the 80s. Seeing this movie (more than once) and adopting the ripped, one-shoulder, cut-off-collar sweatshirt, leg warmers, and the sexy lobster eating technique became a universal rite of passage for me and my big-haired, dance-crazed sorority sisters.

Flash forward almost 30 years later, I’m driving to teach a yoga class, the song comes on the radio, and I immediately launch into singing accompanied by some enthusiastically zealous (which is a nicer way of saying over-the-top) car seat dancing. Well, if you were driving near me, I probably looked like a big geek. “What a Feeling” not only channels back fond memories of my college days; it also has that magical ability to immediately transcend me to a joyful state. Hence, I am deeming “What a Feeling” to be my new yoga theme song.

Wanna get to a happy place? Give yourself a little flashback and watch this video of “What a Feeling” with clips from the movie Flashdance. If you watch really close, you’ll even see Jennifer Beal’s dancing double bust out some classic yoga asanas during her audition dance. At 2:11 she’s in hanumanasana (monkey pose), at 2:37 a beautiful purvottanasana (upward plank pose), and at 2:46 she’s rockin’ a spinning version of ananda balasana (happy baby pose). Who knows, maybe all of those subliminal yoga poses back in the 80s had a profound effect, morphing me into the torn sweatshirt, yoga-lovin’ gal I am today!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILWSp0m9G2U[/youtube]

When I heard “What a Feeling” last week, the song lyrics really touched a chord in me, so I thought I would share a few of those golden nuggets with you. Please note that I added some color commentary and changed up a few of the lyrics to make them Daily Downward Dog style.

First when there’s nothing
But a slow glowing dream
That your fear seems to hide
Deep inside your mind – Let go of the ego and the fear!

Well, I hear the yoga [music],
Close my eyes, feel the prana [rhythm]
Wrap around, take a hold
Of my heart

What a feeling
Bein’s believin’
I can have it all, now I’m yogaing [dancing] for my life
Take your passion
And make it happen
Pictures come alive,
You can yoga [and dance] right through your life

What a feeling
What a feeling (I am yoga/music now)
Bein’s believin’ (I am yoga/rhythm now)
Pictures come alive,
You can yoga [dance] right through your life.

What a feeling (you can really have it all)
What a feeling (pictures come alive when I call) – aka, if you can envision it, you can make it happen
I can have it all (I can really have it all) – go on, put those dreams out there into the universe
Have it all (pictures come alive when I call) – keep repeating those dreams because the more you put it out there, the better!

Yoga
What a feeling!

 

The key take-away is quite simple: Take your passion, and make it happen. It doesn’t matter what that passion is. It could be music, lobster, yoga, travel, dance, writing, or basket weaving. Whatever it is, believe in you, envision it happening, and go for it!

One last note: “What a Feeling” won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Song in a Motion Picture in 1983, won a Grammy for Irene Cara, and in 2008, was ranked at #26 on Billboard’s All Time Top 100. I think that makes it worthy to be my new yoga theme song, and it just might make it onto a yoga class playlist very soon.

P.S. Wanna help me out today? Please click on this link http://on.fb.me/A7tbEI that will take you over to Facebook to vote for my pic posted on the Wanderlust Festival wall. I’ve got some steep competition, but if I get enough likes I’ll win free passes to the Wanderlust festival in Colorado!!