Comfort & Then Joy
“Oh tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, oh tidings of comfort and joy.”
Dear Friends,
I realize that Christmas is months away, but this week I just kept hearing the word comfort. I didn’t hear the word joy, but I wanted to. It’s been a rough week if you listen to the news.
[Pro tip: Get the info that you need and then turn off the news!]
So, I googled quotes about comfort…I looked through all of my books for poems about comfort…I tried all kinds of approaches and found nothing that served me. Finally, I landed on the Christmas carol above. I listened to the bad tidings and now it’s time for tidings of comfort and joy. Sounds like a good idea to me.
I sat with the idea of ‘comfort’ for a few days and listened to what I was thinking. How does comfort translate into a yoga practice? How can I find comfort when everything around me is so disjointed and so out of alignment? Who needs to be comforted and how am I qualified to comfort them?
Comfort – to me it means a hug, it means familiarity, it means a sense that everything is okay - or at least it will be okay. It’s empathy and connection – a feeling that we’re in this together. That’s what gives me comfort and that’s what I would offer to someone who asked for comfort. If we can find comfort, I’m guessing that joy would follow naturally.
But right now, I want comfort, I need comfort. I want the sense of the familiar. I want to be told that all will be well. I want to know that you feel the same way and that it’s okay to feel that way. Then I will be comforted.
That’s what I want our yoga practice to do this week. I want it to comfort us. If we’re comforted, we can offer this comfort to others. I want to share the comfort so that we can move towards joy.
Please join me on your mat.
News to know
There will be no class on Labor Day, Monday, September 6.
The following week (Monday, September 13) we will add our afternoon class back into the schedule at 4:00 pm.
Monday, August 30 - 8:15 am - Slow Flow with Nina G (The link will be out later this evening.)
Wednesday, September 1 - 7:30 pm - Movement & Stillness
Chair Yoga Video - Motion is Lotion
Love,
Nina G