Happy August 

This month's newsletter is about the art of yoga. I hope you enjoy the read. 

Yoga is an art. We have to practice it and let it into our life not just onto our mat. In western culture, we often concentrate on the asana element of yoga: the movement, the ‘exercise’. Yoga, for many, is the act of moving on a mat from one position to another, holding stretches and poses. But, practicing yoga is much more than that. Yoga is the melding together of mind and body, the layering of elements, of which movement is only one part. 

Yoga is complex. It is the combination of mind, body and spirit. But, it is also where breath and body meet and about being present in a posture of observation not judgement. 

Yoga is a journey. Our relationship with yoga is more complex than mastering a pose. The yoga journey evolves with purpose and gentle yet meaningful effort. Effort which is compassionate and not labored, brings personal growth and self esteem. Yoga is the path to balance. Yoga shows us how to remain conscious that we are constantly evolving while encouraging us to stay kind and sympathetic to ourselves on this journey.

Yoga is acceptance. In yoga, our individual experiences form us like the layers of earth which form a mountain. Inside of us, there are all the colors and textures of our personal life experiences. Just as we learn in school about the colors and textures of the geological layering of rocks inside a mountain, we are formed over many small moments in time. The colors, textures and shapes inside us replicate the ones inside a mountain; they are layered but are never linear or predictable. They are impossible to alter as they are predicted by external elements. The only real thing we can control is how we weather them. How we treat our personal relationship with them. This skill involves an ability to accept  and to resist judgement. 

Yoga is a calm moment. The geographical lines of a mountain are shaped by outside elements, such as the weather, internal heat and the pressure from tectonic plates. Our bodies too are formed by the external turbulence of our lives: internal struggles, outside pressures and unforeseen circumstances. The physiological earthquakes causing shifts and floods in nature cause us unwanted disruption, often pain, and can cause corrosion, disturbance and unpredictable outcomes for both nature and ourselves. Often, inner turbulence can be the most disruptive like magna boiling below the surface ready to erupt. Yoga can see the magna yet not act on it, allowing it to cool. Yoga and mindfulness can help us chose to pivot and concentrate on the times of abundance to notice the beauty and precious life experience we are part of.

Yoga is mindfulness. The practice of yoga is our mindful hike through life and all of its multifaceted experiences. Yoga is practicing becoming a better passenger on our own personal journey while allowing our inner layers to form. Yoga is realizing that we are not always the creators of our paths. When practiced well, yoga brings contentment and a type of resilience. Yoga allows us to be a privileged and grateful traveller. 

As we travel, we notice that there is no right or wrong path of our internal layers. No two mountains ever have exactly the same layering, even if they are close in age, size and proximity. The same tectonic plate shifts may have formed them, similar weather patterns and outside elements may have passed over them yet the mountains can never be exactly the same. The same wind and rain will hit them in slightly different ways and directions. The same sun shining over them will have its own unique crevices and turn at slightly different angles. The pools of water will shift the crevices in different ways and the crevices have shifted their angles based on this subjective experience.

Yoga is acknowledging our personal experiences. We have all had our own experiences, which shape us. We may have grown up in the same house with the same exact experiences child but the angle in which these experiences hit us are different. Just like the two mountains, the path of life won’t fall exactly the same way on each person. The intensity of the experience won’t be received in exactly the same way.

As we move through our journey, our experiences and our practice of mindfulness and yoga be should reflect this in the way we treat others and  equally in how we treat ourselves. Our life tapestries are as unique to us as are how we look upon each stitch and react to it.

Yoga is seeing the beauty. In Japan, there is an art called Kintsugi or Kintsukuroi. This is often translated as golden repair. It is a technique which embraces the imperfections of an object. This art chooses to treat damage and repair as part of a beautiful story. Rather than seeing breakage as a blemish which needs to be hidden, it treats the cracks as a way to enhance to object instead of covering the scar of it. Gold and precious lacquers are used to gently heal back broken objects, especially ceramics, with breathtaking results.

Yoga is an art. Through yoga, the melding of breath, body and observing not judging the layers which form us, we can see ourselves and every part of the beautiful story of which we are. We can use the art of yoga to bring together any experiences we perceive to have broken us and reframe them into triumphs of resilience and achievements. As parts of our own history of which we can be proud not ashamed. Through yoga we can marvel in the wholeness of this journey and all the multifaceted, unpredictable layers which it beholds.  

Yoga is Joy. Please take a moment to watch the video for the pose of the month - The Circle of Joy it is a truly beautiful group of poses which I think embodies the whole essence of yoga and how it can strike and balance and make you feel and respond in such a positive light.

I wish you a lovely August - please let me know if there is any way I can help you on your yoga journey. 

Laura McCracken