What Yoga Means to Me
“What does yoga meant to you?”
That’s the journal question we posed to the folks who came to the Yoga Immersion last week. After a few minutes of quiet writing they shared their thoughts, first in a small group, then with the bigger group. And then, they asked us our answers. That’s when I realized we’d asked a really difficult question.
My co-teacher, Niki gave a beautiful heartfelt answer - one that you can ask her about when your paths cross.
Then the question came to me: What does yoga mean?
Now. After more than half my life engaged in this profound and beautiful practice… what does it mean to me?
Yoga, for me, is about connection
Connection with That
I’m a born mystic. I’ve always seen behind the veil and been adept at crossing between worlds. For as long as I can remember I’ve sensed a bigger matrix of energy pulsing and alive that is the backdrop for the great drama we’re all part of. For as long as I can remember I’ve sensed myself as part of it.
So, first the connection is to That. In my heart I call it Shakti-Ma. You call it anything you want. That answers to all names.
Connection with Myself
Once I experience connection with That, then I can connect inside myself. It’s a process of re-membering. It’s putting myself back together when life has done it’s best to pull me all apart. In yoga, connection happens between my body and my mind, my breath and my movement, my heart and my spirit. My inner world and my outer experience. It is a weaving of myself back into myself and back into connection with Shakti-Ma.
Connection with You
When the personal connection is strengthened, then I can connect outside of myself. This practice has been so powerful for me, I can’t help but share it. I feel so grateful that folks show up to learn with me. I feel so lucky that you bring your bodies, hearts, and minds, and that you tell me that you are receiving something useful when I share teachings. It warms my heart.
In fact, yoga is where I connect with community. And where I get to pour in my love for the practice, my love for Shakti-Ma, and my honest love for humanity. And where we get to play and have fun together along the way
But there’s something else. Something that didn’t come forward on Sunday but has been with me ever since.
Yoga Heals & Transforms
In my heart I feel a soul-deep calling to help people feel better. My heart cannot abide the suffering I see in the world. Yoga is the vehicle that carries the medicine that I can offer. It’s not that I think yoga will save everyone. I don’t. But I do know that any small moment where someone suffers less, is a very important moment.
In big yoga classes sometimes the only thing I can do to alleviate suffering is to teach people how to tolerate being together in one room (even when they annoy TF out of one another). In other classes the physical alignment helps bodies find freedom. Or the theme helps minds soften and hearts start to feel again. In individual lessons I help folks out of physical pain and into embodied freedom. In my coaching practice, the wisdom from yoga informs how I help folks out of mental suffering.
No matter where, no matter how, my soul needs to help. Yoga is one of the more potent and practiced medicines I carry in my bundle.
It’s Everything
I’ve been at yoga for more than half my life now. I can tell you honestly, that what I’ve just described is a best case scenario. Some days it’s enough to get on the mat and stretch my hamstrings. Or to sit on my mediation cushion and tolerate the tumultuous seas of my mind.
But in those best-case moments, yoga is life. It is the pulsing, vital force that threads through all things, all times, all places. It is the place where we all belong. And it carries the wisdom that will help us change this world, if we’re brave enough to try.
So now, I ask you the same question…. What does yoga mean to you? I’d love for you to leave a thought in the comments below.