doing yoga in covid

Covid has changed the world over the past year. It doesn’t matter where you have live, in many parts of the world: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,  Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton, Toronto, Halifax, St Johns, or abroad in London, Greece,  Bali, Thailand, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, New Zealand, Hawaii, Covid has forced change on all of us. For me, with yoga, I began to realize that I was living life by society’s expectations and listening to the ever present ego speaking mainly in words that resonated fear within me.

Exhaustive: Yoga

My exhaustive focus on time, before something woke inside of me, was filled with doing in all its forms. Accomplishing, thinking, worrying, ruminating, completing, impatience, controlling, and taking way too much action. 

I look back and wonder how I survived that lifestyle. In the last few months, I have been practicing yoga in a different way. Prior to this, I approached yoga as something to defeat, without my knowledge of what I was actually doing.

Also, without my knowledge, for about a year and a half, there was a silent killer lurking in the shadows. I spent the last several months growing more aware of this lurker as it became increasingly more visible as I increased my awareness. One day the killer stepped out and allowed itself to be completely exposed to me – my private practice!

Practice

Becoming aware that my private practice was slowly destroying me brought me to my knees and I surrendered. Practicing psychotherapy, as Michael Sussman states, is certainly a perilous calling. I surrendered to the Universe and for the first time in my life I asked for help. 

I developed a morning practice of meditation and yoga and I stepped out of the way, surrendered my control, and asked to be guided. I was conscious for possibly the first time and I began seeing things differently. 

I was connecting to nature and to humans in a way that was foreign to me. My trust issues resolved. My practice of meditation and yoga changed drastically from what I was doing before as I stopped competing and controlling.

Charity

For me now, the charity cannot function without the practice of meditation and yoga – they will be the roots of all the programs. Instead of doing all the time, I am now being. 

I am not attached to any goal, I am focused on the present moment. And it is through my morning practice of yoga and meditation that I am centered for the rest of the day.  Surrendering and allow myself to tap into my intuition and be guided. 

I allow things to flow instead of forcing. I now sit on the mat and continue my practice until I feel better. Prior to this I was rushing through it – ever time conscious. The most remarkable aspect of it all is that I feel at peace and I am filled with joy. It wasn’t until I stopped doing that, that I realized just how chaotic I felt inside.

Yoga

Through the practice of meditation and yoga, I have learned that I can raise my own vibration and feel better – that my internal environment is not affected by external sources. 

My happiness comes from within, and my purpose and passion, as both a teacher and as someone who helps and supports humans to heal, is to provide a safe, calm, peaceful space where no matter what program they choose, they can turn inward and find their joy and peace because of the foundations that meditation and yoga provide.