Is anyone else watching BILLIONS on Showtime?
If yes, let’s hop on a phone call and go deeeeeeeeeeeeep into the rabbit hole of spoilers, hypotheses, and just plain fan-girling HARD.
If not, let me give you a quick synopsis (which hopefully will turn you into a binge watcher on the next rainy day). In the words of Damien Walter:
Billions is a show about Billionaires. But it’s also a show about the society that gives rise to billionaires, a global society of seven billion people and rising – the society of here and now. It’s no exaggeration to say that Billions is a Great Gatsby for our times.
Bobby “Axe” Axelrod stands as the billionaire founder of Axe Capital, surrounded by obsequious yes-men and ambitious traders, friends from his working class neighborhood who turn to Axe for favors, and wife Lara, queen to Axe’s king, who acts behind the scenes to aid her husband.
Okay, I think I’ve given you enough to get where I’m headed, or at least enough to follow me there. Because yes, this will eventually be about yoga. I promise.
In the second episode of Billions, Axe says “what’s the point of having fuck you money if you never get to say ‘fuck you’?”
His words struck me immediately.
Not because I was offended – not at all. If you know me well, you know that my mouth can get a bit sailor-ish every so often (cough, cough very often).
More so because I instantaneously recognized one of the greatest gifts yoga gives us.
The NOT needing to make sure people are aware of our good.
Our good.
Our light. Our love. Our compassion. Our awareness. Our mindfulness. Our independence. Our oneness. Our ability to connect. Our service. Our self-care. Our abundance, which might be money – or it might be something else.
Before I truly developed a practice that allowed me to believe in the power of my own presence, I wanted attention and recognition. I was driven by what other people thought. I craved praise. I judged myself on opinions, rather than intentions.
Yoga helped me to see the light. I stopped wishing for the words “you’re amazing!” and somehow just started knowing that I was.
Because of yoga, I don’t need “fuck you money” or “fuck you” anything else.
I just need me, and that’s worth billions.
Bridget Riepl is a mom, a yoga teacher, a former lawyer, a writer, a moderately decent cook, a really good baker, a seeker of fantastic coffee and a firm believer in the power of positive thinking. Bridget became all those things around the same time and credits the whole “former lawyer” thing as the impetus for most of the fun stuff she gets to do on a daily basis now. Bridget was born and raised in New Jersey and cannot imagine calling anywhere else “home.” She loves the entire NJ yoga community with lioness-like ferocity and cannot wait to show the world just what NJ yogis are up to – because it is crazy amazing stuff.
You can find Bridget teaching yoga every week at POE Yoga in Fair Haven, Synergy Yoga in Fair Haven, AB Fitness in Sea Bright, and Evenflow Yoga in Red Bank.
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