Dear Reader,
Yesterday I felt a bit broken… some days, that’s the way it is with me. Since pulling my ribs and my sacroiliac joint out of whack around two months ago it has been a bit of an achy time. These aches take an intermittent, yet a circular journey through me, moving along well-trodden paths of strain and tightness within my fascial system. I’m not saying this to garner sympathy, I really don’t need or want this. I’m sharing it because I feel that so many of us are feeling a bit broken and I would love for you to know that you are not alone. Feeling a little fragmented in mind, body or spirit is actually a normal part of life. I feel quite strongly that we need to honour and love our brokenness in these times.
We live in a society that glorifies strong, healthy, fit, youthful, beautiful and successful people. I don’t think this is a good thing… In the yoga philosophy, we are all worthy of glory! We are all perfect, whole, and free… even though our minds, bodies and even our spirits might be struggling. If we find a way of calming the body, mind, sensations, breath, and emotions (and yes, we do that through our yoga practice)… then behind it we might get a glimpse of the brahman, our perfect, quiet unbounded Self.
If you have aches, pains or other ailments that rear their head every now and again, I am with you. I know how exhausting and difficult it can be to keep plodding on day after day when things don’t feel great and life seems like one big struggle. What is more, there always seems to be some new challenge arising whether a health challenge, a work challenge, a relationship challenge, a financial challenge… life is generally quite a challenge at the moment!
And yet somehow, this experience of falling apart is a precious thing. It can lead us, and those around us, towards a deeper appreciation of life itself. When we’re faced with adversity, we have the potential to reveal those hidden parts of ourselves that are capable of rising to challenge, that stay calm within the storm. Adversity brings to the fore that whole, strong part of ourselves that is always there, yet goes unnoticed behind the everyday humdrum of lives.
It can appear as if yoga is a method for fixing our broken bodies, minds and spirits. And it is true, that there are myriad scientific papers about how yoga is good for a wide range of physical and mental health complaints. Yet, it’s better to think of yoga as a way of connecting to that part of ourselves that is and always will be whole, unbroken, untouched by all the painful experiences, shocks, disappointments, traumas, trials and tribulations that we go through in life. This part of us is strong, kind, patient, forgiving and most of all deeply loving.
So, be sure to love your loved ones, your friends, your neighbours, your pets, your houseplants, your gardens, your community, the earth, the sky and all of creation. But most of all, be sure to love yourself even though you might feel a bit broken. For it is by loving yourself and others that you lay the ground for that eternally wise, humble and heroic part of yourself to come to the fore.
Classes are running throughout the week, but on the weekend I am taking my broken self, and my whole Self, dancing for two full days!
It was when I was dancing in a Five Rhythms workshop in 2016 that I saw these fabulous and very well-known lyrics from Leonard Cohen:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
So I will be thinking of all of you and dancing for our broken world... and celebrating all the love that is born from this brokenness… Have a wonderful week!
Love and good wishes,
Julia xxx
Loving the Broken