Explore
The definition of the word ‘Explore’ is to travel through an unfamiliar area, be it geographical, educational or discursive in order to learn more. Exploration is in us naturally, we don’t all have the time, energy or desire to explore EVERYTHING but there is an inherent impetus to educate ourselves further on topics about which we are interested. Lately it seems that there is a strange vibration which is turning the masses away from exploration in all contexts and towards echo chamber addiction & confirmation bias subsequently leading to what feels like the most divisive era ever in most of our lifetimes. Dear reader, the fact that you are looking at these words on a Yoga website means that you already want to explore, it means that you already know that things are strange ‘out there’ but yet your quest for more knowledge is authentic, it means also that you are humble enough to know, like all aspiring Yogis that we know nothing and that the path to Wisdom is letting go of the comfort of tunnel vision in favour of the sometimes scary yet altogether more beautiful & vast Truth! In the context of Yoga, our mission of exploration begins & continues with a trip inside! not a journey in a space ship to outer worlds but rather an expedition into aspects of ourselves which are unfamiliar…. This kind of travel is full of wonder & deep education but can be unpleasant!
Yoga invites us to observe EXACTLY what’s going on in the present! I know I define the Practice in this way regularly so apologies if you perceive repetition as a broken record…I hope for you however that you see repetition as an opportunity to learn more. When we properly face ourselves again & again, when we take away the lies that we have told to protect us from the hard truths & when we don’t avoid the muckiness of our bad behaviour, only then can we begin our daily internal exploration with genuinity. OK I’m going to sound like a strict old teacher with a cane again but please try to imagine me as a friendly one with a cake instead! If we do not approach our Yoga with the intention of learning the truth of ourselves, if we ‘say’ we have a Practice when we don’t, if we use it as yet another escape mechanism or indeed a way to delude ourselves into thinking we are more woke than others …..then it ceases to be Yoga. The real work happens inside, the more we all try our best with this effort, the more modest humility we apply individually, then the more the collective will benefit. It is not by accident that we are in the Global mess we’re in, we have lost sight of what it is to self-study to properly share & to Love Unconditionally.
Our Yoga won’t be the instantaneous antidote but it can be the beginning of healing if we are truly willing to explore. see you on the mat!
