Every Breath You Take

As a white yoga teacher who teaches mainly white students, I carry consistent (if not complete) awareness and concern around identity and access and fulfillment. Both inside and outside of this practice, I think a lot about my perspective and privilege as a white woman. It is important to me how I represent the foundational ideas of yoga, having reached my spiritual place of belonging in what could be considered appropriation after appropriation of culture, science, and religion. But I am always learning, always open, and only as good of a teacher and guide as I am a student and devotee.

At its core, yoga is about union, about cultivating a relationship with ourselves, examining our thoughts, words, actions, values, through the lens of our practice. It is, truly, a practice for every body. It is my goal to help each practitioner embody the best of themselves. We move, we breathe. Beyond the poses and the philosophy there is always the breath — and being able to breathe is a literal and figurative symbol of our collective wellness and consciousness right now, as before and as ever. As yoga teacher Khay Muhammad recently reminded students, "Breath is our first right."

Each breath we take is prayer. Each breath we take is a new beginning. Each breath we take is medicine. Each breath we take is connection — to ourselves, to, our higher power, to our common humanity. Each breath we take is a privilege. Each breath represents our vital right to life. It is our Vital Force. Without the breath, we are, quite literally, dead. With every breath may there be gratitude. With every breath may there be mindfulness of those who have lost it, either from illness or brutality.

One of yoga’s guiding premises comes from Patanjali’s sutra 2.46 — sthira sukham asanam: “posture should be stable and comfortable.” We constantly strive for this balance of effort and ease in yoga as practice for our lives, hoping to find that sweet spot between surrender and strength both on and off the mat… this is how our breath and our practice can serve ourselves as well as others. First, we fortify our own spirit and will, then we can join roots, hands, hearts, intentions with the larger collective. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And so, we practice and we strengthen, remembering that we are all one. We all share the same cosmic stuff in our flesh and bones, the same light and capacity and love in our hearts.

So let's heave a collective sigh. Let's breathe a collective breath. Let's practice and work together so that we can serve ourselves, each other, and the world from a place of consciousness and strength to shape change and build a better world where the lives of our black brothers and sisters matter as much as each individual breath we take.

Resources:

“Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds” — adrienne maree brown

“Awakening Fueled by Rage” — Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

“We Cry Out for Justice” — Jan Willis

“Race, Reclamation, and the Resilience Revolution” — Larry Ward

“Buddhism in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter” — Pamela Ayo Yetunde

“Why Breath Matters” — Jeanne Heileman

#blacklivesmatter #yogaisjustice #yogaforjustice #yogaisbreath #breathislife #pivotyourprivilege #setuyogacommunity #setuyoga #positiverelationshipsacrossidentities #emergentstrategy