with love by meg
handdrawn | woodburned
Pause.
Our experiences are constantly shifting as we respond to COVID19.
As you navigate this unprecedented time, may you be gentle with yourself.
Click here for a free Yoga Nidrā offering via Insight Timer to support deep rest and nourishment.
You deserve it.
_______________________
Update.
In the early COVID experience I stepped back from teaching to prioritize my social work vocation and the safety of vulnerable adults in Long Term Care. I have since gained clarity that I will not be returning to teach – not now, not with the considerations briefly described below.
I wrestled with my place in the yoga community throughout most of my brief teaching career.
The more I learned, the less comfortable I felt presenting myself as a figure of knowledge or authority.
At times, I felt deeply connected to what I was offering. I enjoyed guiding folks into their bodies and breath and I loved the experience of community. I craved and needed community to counter feelings of loneliness amidst a society focused heavily on the individual (another topic).
I do not want to deny the profound impact yoga had on my own healing. I navigated through recovery from a head-on collision, eating disorder, and addiction with the support of my yoga practice/community.
Over time, I learned that I was perpetuating misinformation, misrepresentations, mistranslations and a heavily colonized and commodified practice; a practice that, to me, began to feel more like fitness with a thin veneer of spirituality.
One of the greatest impacts on my understanding and approach to Yoga was a superb study of the Bhagavad Gītā with Kaya Mindlin. Kaya is a teacher’s teacher, and I recommend her offerings if you are looking to explore the Vedic Tradition through teachings that are relevant, transformative and nourishing. The more I studied with Kaya, the more I recognized incongruence between what I was learning and the yoga I was participating in.
I am glad to step back from teaching to become a more curious and discerning student, and I am grateful to the teachings of Yoga which support deep inquiry and remembrance.