It All Starts Within

Lately I’ve been thinking about why the world seems to be so disconnected. I certainly know there are many factors that have caused a difference of opinion these days . We are all influenced in our thoughts, behavior, and emotions by what impacts each of us personally. What puzzles me most is the broad separatism that appears to be happening between us all. There seems to be an enormous lack of emotional understanding and compassion for what each person may be facing based on life experience and personal situations.

I guess that’s why I feel the importance of staying close and connected to my family, my dearest friends, and my yoga community. I recognize my daily yoga practice is an important staple, it provides a consistent connectedness that I need for my own stability. My practice has kept me grounded when I don’t have answers and the world around me is shaken and appears to be weak. If we lose the connection that grounds us to ourselves, there is a negative ripple affect that takes root. That same disconnection we feel with ourselves indirectly affects other people through the way we can or cannot relate to them. In other words, how can we begin to understand any another other person if we lose touch with our own personal selves?

Any outside influences in the world can blind us if we allow them to. Self study is an essential practice right now, especially when there is a high level of change and uncertainty with our current world environment. We have all been affected by the circumstances of our external world. Recently it’s been very hard to avoid overwhelming saturation from media, politics, and pandemic information, and our internal world is compromised when our sense of comfort and security is in jeopardy.

My physical yoga practice allows a space for me to tune in daily. It’s not only physical. I tune in emotionally and spiritually too. I observe my thoughts. I pay attention to my feelings. I often write notes or journal after my practice, and I acknowledge what came up during my time on the yoga mat. The world needs a reflective mirror right now, a mirror to take an honest look at ourselves. It’s important for each one of us to take responsibility for individual work that needs to be done.

This is the hard part. It’s much easier to sit back from the outside and think we have all the answers. It’s much easier to become absorbed in our own lives and only focus on our personal needs. It’s much easier to think we have a solution for what’s wrong in the world, rather than step up to be a part of the solution. Our own ideas are always much easier to digest, but often focusing on just our own ideas means our ego is taking over.

How to understand ourselves better is perhaps the most important question we should be asking. How is our own connection being nurtured and cared for? How do we make the small changes within? What tools do we have available to increase our awareness and positively impact ourselves as individuals? When we begin to help ourselves, we are more available to help friends and family. Ultimately this helps us become a better part of society and our immediate community. When our own self study and personal practice of understanding becomes better, understanding as a whole becomes better.

Better understanding of the self starts a reconnection process. That connection becomes an extension that can help those beyond our own communities find more understanding and stretch farther out to more corners of our world and our collective universe.

The main part of a yoga practice is focused on finding a deep connection with your breath. Once the breath is established we add movement or asana, postures specifically designed to remove you from the external world and allow you to concentrate on what you are feeling inside. When you establish a consistent yoga practice, the tools you gain will take you, as a practitioner, young, old, broken, lost, or weary, back through your self, to your true self, a relationship far beyond you and your yoga mat. And that connection to yourself is the first step in better connecting to your external wold in a true, clear and meaningful way.

During this month of September, Yoga Life Center is focused on connection. We hope to help you stay connected. Our studio will welcome you in. We have dedicated students who have created a welcoming community and teachers to guide you toward finding the practice tools you need to feel more connected in a healthy, balanced, and loving way.

Comments and feedback are always appreciated.

Peace, Love and Namaste 🙏 💜🌎

Written by Victoria Feltz

Victoria a co-founder of Yoga Life Center, LLC and is an experienced yoga instructor who has been teaching for almost 20 years. She focuses mainly on Ashtanga Yoga teaching, but also teaches hot yoga and other movement classes. She has raised two sons and believes in nurturing those around her so they can find their own practice tools. Learn more about Victoria by visiting her bio page on our website.