Tools from the Yoga tradition can Save Us and Our Planet

Yoga in essence is about union – just like the Sanskrit meaning of the word states. But it’s not just the union of the body and the mind or the mind and the breath but the union between us and our surrounding world – the people, the animals, our planet. 

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Separation is the opposite of union and separation in my view brings about greed and selfishness. When we’re not in union with something or someone we don’t feel them or for them. It’s easy to appropriate, extract and exploit. 

The Fight against Separation

In separation the world is made up of objects. Everyone and everything else is an object, especially everything that is far from us, either in distance or in energy. This includes the animals that are factory farmed somewhere far away that become our food and the disadvantaged sweatshop workers who produce our cheap clothes. It also means all the beautiful, old trees of the Amazon chopped by the acre to make room for crops that feed the aforementioned factory farmed animals, the indigenous people whose lands are being cleared for oil drilling and the coffee pickers being poisoned by the toxins in the pesticides in their working environment.

When we're not connected to something or someone, it’s easier to appropriate, extract and exploit. 

What we can learn from yoga is a life committed to the awareness and the experience of unity. We start to realise that the people, animals and plants mentioned before, are all us. The tools that we get from practising Yoga leads automatically to a life in which our choices are ones made in an awareness of our intrinsic connection.

Yoga brings about Connection

This is what our world needs. For us as individuals, to overcome our separation, loneliness and numbness, feeling connected is essential. A well-functioning society is dependent on interconnectedness. Globally, as a united community, acknowledging our inseparable bonds is crucial. Yoga, embodying the true essence of unity, has the potential to preserve both our health and our planet's.

What we can learn from yoga is a life committed to the awareness and the experience of unity.

We can talk about this in yogic terms, referring to union and separation, or we can talk about this in terms of critical political or social studies and talk about exploitation, capitalism, neocolonialism and development. In essence it’s the same thing. Having studied both, I find that the richness and depth that Yoga brings into this conversation, is the personal level tools that we gain from the practice. These help us become more aware, more empathetic. And that’s a place that we need to be in, in order for us to want to do better and to want to make a change.

I'll be writing more blogs and sharing my thoughts regarding wellness, social and environmental issues and Yoga on this platform. Stay tuned for more!

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Feeling more grounded helps us return to ourselves, our core values and the important things in life. Join me for a grounding yoga practice on my Youtube channel.