Focus of the Month: October 2020

Every Moment is Yoga

written by Nady Persons

At its core, yoga means “to yoke” or to join together and make whole. In the practice of yoga, we’re essentially bringing together so many different parts of us, from the parts we are proud of to the parts we’d rather keep hidden. We are also connecting ourselves both with Mother Earth as well as with the Divine, however you choose to define that.

If this pandemic has collectively taught us anything, it’s that there is a lot of deep, internal work that needs to be done by every single one of us. As cities, states, and entire countries continue the pattern of retreating within and emerging, we are presented with an opportunity that we can either choose to embrace or eschew: we can either show up and do the messy internal excavating necessary to co-create a just, equitable, inclusive world, or we can numb out. Our liberation is intertwined; as long as we continue to create separation, we will never be free. Every moment is yoga.

We have all experienced incalculable losses over the past number of months related to COVID, wildfires, hurricanes, and more. The world that’s emerging looks nothing like the world we were used to pre-March 13th, 2020. Collective grief is palpable in our communities as we process the loss of loved ones and leaders, livelihoods, and a way of life with which we had grown comfortable. The pandemic is also revealing to a wider audience the toxicity inherent in our communities where people are denied basic human rights because of the color of their skin. Where police brutality is unchecked and rampant against Black people. Where large amounts of people are being detained and separated from their children – and some sterilized – by the US government in mass detention centers. Where people are being denied adequate healthcare.

The system is broken. There is no way to sugar coat the fact that the foundations our country is built upon are designed to uplift and empower some and imprison others based on race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, and other identity markers. Some of us can choose to look away and deny the existence of such atrocities and inequities knowing that it will never impact them as much as it impacts others. This is the very nature of privilege – you don’t have to critically think about the ills of the world because the way in which the world is designed benefits different aspects of you. I ask that you choose to show up as an aspiring ally in the areas where you are privileged through digging in and doing the incredibly hard, daily work of unlearning the toxic things we’ve come to internalize.

As the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg said when she built upon the famous Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quote, “The arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice BUT ONLY if there is steadfast commitment to see it through to completion.” Are you willing to dig in and do the necessary inner work to see outer change? Are you willing to work harder than you ever have to co-create a future that is inclusive and liberatory for all beings?

We are living in the Kali Yuga, or the yuga of vice and ignorance. Yuga, in Sanskrit, essentially means a delineation of time. There are four yugas and the Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages or ages before they repeat themselves again. Each of the four yugas has a different flavor or focus, and the cycle goes: Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali. We’re living in a yuga where time has sped up, and where hypocrites and liars are given leadership positions at all levels. The earth is polluted, and the human diet is centered in harm. Wealth is diminished and given to few. It can be hard to be optimistic about the state of humanity in our current times, but I invite you to remember that every moment IS yoga. Every moment is an opportunity to reconnect and recenter our whole selves (including the messy, ugly parts we’d rather not reveal to anyone). Every moment is a chance for us to reconnect with others – especially those who are not like us – and to reconnect to this magical planet and the Divine.

Every single one of us chose to incarnate on this planet at this moment in time. We chose to come here and live this experience. Our souls are hearty, and at our core, we know what we need to do in order to usher in a new age. But as long as we continue to create separation, we will never be free. As long as we continue to buy into the polarization that’s being perpetuated by news sources, the media, and potentially by friends and family members, we will never find our collective liberation.

I invite you to consider Aparigraha during these complex times. Aparigraha in Sanskrit essentially means non-grasping, and it serves as the final yama. Yamas together with their compliment, the Niyamas, comprise the first two limbs of the 8-fold yogic path and are a series of ethical rules by which one should live. Aparigraha asks you to examine your attachments both to the physical realm, to people, as well as to our thoughts, mindsets, values, and beliefs that may no longer serve us. Marsha P. Johnson, gay liberation and AIDS activist and performer, put it perfectly when she said, “History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable…it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”

We have a lot at stake in the upcoming election. If you truly believe in yoga and its definition of joining together to make whole, how can you exercise that by your voting choices? I ask you to critically examine all candidates on your ballot from presidential nominees to judges to commissioners. Which candidates are aligned with your beliefs? Which are aligned with yogic beliefs of reducing separation and harm in an effort to yoke or join together in compassion, equity, inclusion, and ultimately liberation?

Further, utilize aparigraha to release mindsets that are no longer serving you. Perhaps you’ve changed your viewpoints substantially since the last presidential election in 2016. Maybe you’re experiencing tension from friends and family members who still believe the same things they did then. Are you willing to do the necessary work to engage in compassionate conversations about this in an effort to elect the people who are committed to creating a liberatory environment so that the most marginalized among us thrive? When the most marginalized among us thrive, it deeply benefits all of us. As Black liberation activist, scholar, sociologist, and educator Anna Julia Cooper said, “The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.”

Every moment is yoga – even the moment when you step into the freshly sanitized voting booth. You have an opportunity to join together both the “good” parts of you with welcoming and accepting the not-so-good and the downright cringeworthy. When we do this for ourselves, we become open to doing that with others. We reduce the need to separate and other people for being different than us. We begin to come from a place of collective compassion and radical inclusion rather than from a place of wanting what benefits the individual most. And we have the power to vote in a way that will allow us to begin to break free from the mire that is the Kali Yuga, the Age of Lies and Hypocrisy, to usher in the Age of Truth and Radical Community.

Every moment we have is an opportunity to exercise connection, inclusion, equity, and compassion in new and powerful ways. Every moment we have, we can either choose to uplift others or to continue to create conditions for them that make it difficult and nearly impossible to thrive. Every moment we have, we can either succumb to outdated beliefs, values, and mindsets that no longer serve us or we can break free through applying the yama of aparigraha and step into a new, liberated now that will empower all of us.

Which will you choose? As author, feminist, social activist, and professor bell hooks said, “When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other.”

Below you’ll find a list of recommended habits, foods, texts, songs, and asanas for these complex times.

Habits

As we transition into fall, which is ruled by Vata dosha (the constitution comprised of air and ether), build sustainable morning and evening routines so that your body-mind-spirit knows what to expect, which will help it settle into this transitory time
Examine your social media feeds. Does your feed look like you? If so, consider making a habit of following people who don’t look like you in order to push your thinking and cultural conditioning

Foods

Increase warm, spiced foods to balance the cool, dry shift that comes with this particular seasonal change
Try adding root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets to your weekly meal plans
Try to make sure you’re done eating 2-3 hours before bedtime so that sleep can be spent repairing and rejuvenating your body instead of digesting food

Texts

Revolution of the Soul: Awaken to Love Through Raw Truth, Radical Healing, and Conscious Action by Seane Corne
Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World by Michelle Cassandra Johnson
Becoming by Michelle Obama
White Hot Truth by Danielle LaPorte

Music

Turntables by Janelle Monáe
Elevate Your Mind by Londrelle featuring Desiree Dawson
I Want to Break Free by Queen
There Will Be a Light by Ben Harper & The Blind Boys of Alabama
Chasing Rainbows by Big Freedia featuring Kesha

Asanas

Move more deliberately during your asana practice. Slow it down!
Release goals and expectations of your practice and of each pose itself
Reduce the number of inversions you’re doing! If you’re a fan of headstand and handstand, try swapping it out with Viparita Karani (legs up the wall) and Salamba Sarvangasana (shoulder stand)
Increase stability and groundedness with hip openers like Malasana (squat pose), and Utthan Pristhasana (lizard pose)

Teacher Tools:

Quotes
“The arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice BUT ONLY if there is steadfast commitment to see it through to completion.” RBG building upon the famous MLK quote
“When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other.” bell hooks
“The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.” Anna Julia Cooper
“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable…it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.” Marsha P. Johnson
Texts
Revolution of the Soul: Awaken to Love Through Raw Truth, Radical Healing, and Conscious Action by Seane Corne
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World by Michelle Cassandra Johnson
Becoming by Michelle Obama
White Hot Truth by Danielle LaPorte

Music
Turntables by Janelle Monáe
Elevate Your Mind by Londrelle featuring Desiree Dawson
I Want to Break Free by Queen
There Will Be a Light by Ben Harper & The Blind Boys of Alabama
Chasing Rainbows by Big Freedia featuring Kesha)

Chants
Om Bhur bhuvah svah, tat savitur varenyam, bargo devasya dhimahi, diyo yo nah pracodayat (Gayatri Matra; may the Divine inspire our thoughts and hearts and the ways in which we move about the world)
Saha navavatu saha nau bhunaktu, saha viryam karavavahi, tejasvi navadhitam astu, ma vidvdishavahai (in service of communal protection, an end to resentment and quarreling, and an increase of knowledge and strength)

Pranayama
Sama Vritti to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and calm the mindbody

Meditation
Maitri/Metta in order to help release judgment or resentment of people

Asanas
Move more deliberately during your asana practice. Slow it down!
Release goals and expectations of your practice and of each pose itself
Reduce the number of inversions you’re doing! If you’re a fan of headstand and handstand, try swapping it out with Viparita Karani (legs up the wall) and Salamba Sarvangasana (shoulder stand)
Increase stability and groundedness with hip openers like Malasana (squat pose), and Utthan Pristhasana, (lizard pose)

<span style=”font-size: 12pt;”>October 2020</span>

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Focus of the Month: October 2020

Every Moment is Yoga

written by Nady Persons

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