Community

Ever wonder why you keep coming back to yoga class? Is it because you leave feeling vibrant with a sense of well-being? Or maybe a sense of accomplishment? These are great things, but I think if we dive in a little more and really investigate, we will realize that it could be the community that we crave either consciously or not. People are meant to be with people. We are meant to have fellowship together on many different levels. Community is to commune in unity with others. Yoga is unique in this because we aren’t sharing a meal together, gathering in a religious service or playing a game together. It’s much more intimate than that. We are breathing together, moving together, sweating together in unity. We are encouraging one another with our breath, focus and determination. We are lifting each other up without saying a word to one another. You can show up to yoga sad, angry or happy and you will be held in the room through space and love. Something happens when we move together. It’s like a magical dance that starts to feed your soul. If you’re thinking, I just want to go to yoga to get strong or have better flexibility and be healthy, I don’t really go for the community. That’s okay, but you might be missing out on something bigger. I recently learned a new African word from a podcast I was listening to. The word is Ubuntu. The definition of ubuntu is translated as I am, because we are. It is one word they use to describe community or closeness.

Can we really achieve the same level of health in our yoga practice at home? I would argue no. There is something about being in a room full of people moving together in unison that I believe helps us towards being healthier. I do enjoy the hugs and conversation before class. Seven hugs a day keeps the doctor away but what I love even more is a packed class where your neighbors sweat is puddling next to your mat and the whole room begins to move and breath together. For me it feels like unity, the best kind of community there is.