Quarantine House of Love: How to Bring Reality into Your Yoga Practice
As this deadly virus sweeps through all parts of the world, it's easy to want to retreat into a spiritual bubble of meditation, yoga, or other art form and "get away from it all."
I get that.
But that would be falling victim to something called “spiritual bypassing.”
In the yoga context, spiritual bypassing happens when we use our practice to check out or escape the reality of what the world is dishing out.
In our scramble to avoid darkness, suffering, politics, and oppression in our culture, it can be easy to make yoga into our happy place, where we don't have to feel any negativity and it's "good vibes only."
But here's the thing. You can't pray, meditate, or sweat reality away.
At best, yoga and meditation practices will let you be more present to darkness or difficulty once you get off your mat. But to declare your practice "free from bad vibes" is a bypass.
Personally, this virus has hit close to home. It has impacted students of mine, dear friends, and now my family.
And to be honest, I can't check out for them - my practice has never been more focused on feeling it all and the desire to send strength and love to those in need.
In this unparalleled time in our history, ask yourself: Do you want your yoga practice to be a way to check out and indulge your need to feel good? Do you want to absolve yourself of responsibility for what is happening in the world?
Or, do you want to check in, and stay connected to the intricate web of humanity and nature? This is not always the easy path - for there is grief, hurt, and pain, but would you be willing to grow, and be in it for all?
There are a lot of meditations and yoga classes out there that intend to help you escape the reality we are facing.
I’d love to offer you a way to have a different sort of practice, by adding a meditation and centering to the practice you are doing right now.
This centering should help make your practice a place of refuge, while at the same time tuning you in, acknowledging, and honoring your current state, those suffering, and the folks braving the front lines of this pandemic.
Here it is:
Take a comfortable seat and tune in to your breath as well as any emotions you are feeling in the moment.
Give yourself permission to welcome any feelings that arise.
Feel your back body expand, and sense the space 12 inches behind you visualizing yourself being held by the divine.
Now widen your attention toward any and all those you know and do not know who might be struggling - with the virus itself, with loss of life, loss of income, or fatigue in the case of our health workers on the front line.
While staying connected to the support you feel behind you, welcome these beings into your space and offer your love, your strength, your arms, your smile, and your compassion.
Visualize the world as you'd like it to be - at peace, more conscious, more awake, healthy, vibrant, radiant.
Fold your palms into anjali mudra (namaste hands) and bow your head to seal this offering.
As you flow on your mat, dedicate every pose as an offering to those beings, hold them in your heart, make your practice mean something to them.
I hope this is helpful to you and your practice. I’d love to hear from you how it feels and how it went in the comments!
Cover photo by Greg Brenton of Witness Content