Taking a break from yoga instruction during lockdowns and closures has helped me to inhale a big, fresh breath of gratitude for leading classes and being in community again. I simply feel that I am showing up and exhaling more of myself.
In a note I wrote and handed out to yoga students in February of 2019 (included below), I said, ‘we are in this thing together,” a sentiment that has been used to describe the pandemic to evoke a feeling of solidarity.
When is anyone really in anything together? I have considered this phrase so much during lockdowns aware that one person’s experience was certainly not someone else’s. And yet, community is a powerful way to not feel so alone. To be understood. To belong. To feel wanted. To be aligned with purpose. To feel brave enough to ‘jump in’. The thing is, you still have to jump. No one can do that for you.
Once your basic needs are met, what stops you? What holds you back from living authentically?
Do you create a list of reasons of why together won’t get you there, why some of the gifts you bring to the world are unworthy, or you don’t deserve a certain kind of life because it is too late, you are too old, too comfortable, too set in your ways, not old enough or smart enough or not something-enough yet.
Isn’t there a middle ground like the letter below suggests? What about committing to showing up for yourself? What about showing up for yourself with others cheering you on? And then, showing up again and again for something that shifts you? What about committing to nothing else but to overcome your own objections?
A note I gave to yoga students in 2019…
