Grace & Space
Dear friends,
When people hear the term 'yoga', many think of someone sitting in lotus pose meditating. Or maybe they think of someone in a fantastical balance pose. Or maybe both!?!
But yoga poses, or asanas, are just one small part of yoga. Yoga is an 8-limbed system of guidelines for living an ethical, healthy, and complete life. Before we even consider moving our bodies into poses, we must know who we are and how to behave.
The first two limbs of yoga are the yamas (behavior guidelines) and the niyamas (how we care for ourselves). The asanas are the 3rd limb of yoga. After that, we explore the breath, meditation, and, ultimately, connection.
In last week's newsletter I mentioned the yoga term ahimsa - non-harming. Ahimsa is the first of the yamas - it asks us to be in right relationship with ourselves, our community, and our world.
Sometimes that means that we need to give ourselves grace. I think that we all need a little 'grace & space'. When things get overwhelming, be kind to yourself. Let's take the time that we need to process today's news and events and then - when we're ready and only when we're ready - we can move forward. That might include stepping away from the noise or taking some time to yourself.
Guess what? That's yoga too.
I found this poem in a stack of old class notes that I had when I first started to teach yoga. I think that this is a great example of ahimsa.
“I lied and said I was busy.
I was busy;
but not in a way most people understand.
I was busy taking deeper breaths.
I was busy silencing irrational thoughts.
I was busy calming a racing heart.
I was busy telling myself I am okay.
Sometimes, this is my busy -
and I will not apologize for it.”
Be kind to yourself. Give yourself some grace & space.
Love & grace,
Nina G
PS In case you are wondering, the other yamas are truthfulness, non-stealing, non-excess, and non-possessiveness. We'll talk about those in other newsletters!