Share the Love

Yoga means union. I’ve never experienced such a union, such a sweet manifestation of community as when people from all over came to help out when Celeste was in a very serious car accident in 2006. People stopped by to be with her, to love her, to read to her. People organized kirtans, taught yoga classes and then donated the money to us, and brought us meals every night for two months straight. I gained 10 pounds from all that lovin’. People donated time, money, and energy and in so doing they helped heal Celeste, and therefore heal me, but also they healed the community as they all came together in a common cause. It has also been inspiring to participate in Yogis Give Back, the benefit yoga workshop where the community of yoga teachers and practitioners come together and practice for a common cause to the tune of several thousands of dollars that we can donate to that cause.

Whether it’s the Arts Festival, Gallery Stroll, the Farmer’s Market, Strut Your Mutt, The Salt Lake City Marathon, or the Twilight Concert Series, one of the reasons that Salt Lake City is such an amazing place to live is that it is both large enough and small enough to celebrate a wonderful community.

One of the reasons we come to yoga class is to be a part of the diverse community of yoga practitioners. By coming to this communal practice we offer our personal voice, our body, our breath to the diversity of the practice, a diversity that has been celebrated for thousands of years. We gain enormously from the power of practicing together by feeding off each other’s energy. Nothing is as electrifying as practicing yoga with a lot people in class. Surely yoga means first union of body mind spirit of individual and second we are invited to participate in the union of body mind spirit of a community, then of the world.

Yoga, like life, is very personal. A personal practice is very important yet this personal practice doesn’t have to necessarily exclude other people. One of our greatest personal lessons is how to live and thrive with other people with whom we share this community and this earth. It’s about learning to accept and celebrate differences, work out our problems, and to learn to love each other, even when someone has a different political philosophy than us, even when someone practices differently than we do.

I invite you to practice community this week by coming to yoga class. Celebrate community this week by coming to our Partner Yoga workshop this Friday night at Centered City Yoga (see details below). Come and be with us!