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The biggest misconception about yoga? That it’s all about love and light.
Yet, I would argue the opposite is true.
Traditionally, Hatha yoga is about the balance between energies: ha being the sun energy and masculine strength, and tha being the moon energy and feminine softness. To put it simply, it represents the opposites: darkness and light, love and hatred, joy and suffering.
It’s all present.
And it’s undeniably part of our human experience.
One needs the other to exist.
Sometimes it happens, especially in the yoga space, that we end up spiritually bypassing the “negative”—or to rephrase it, the “uncomfortable.” It’s easy to push it all away when this practice makes it so easy to just focus on the beauty of life.
But, to be honest, it couldn’t be more obvious these days that the world is pretty f*cked up. The climate crisis and collapse of our ecosystems weigh on our shoulders, there is war all around us, some of us are in the middle of these atrocities, there is so much hatred and cruelty, and little hope for a livable future—for ourselves or our children.
It’s damn heavy.
As you read these lines, check in with yourself: How does your jaw feel? Did your shoulders creep all the way up to your ears? Have you wrinkled your forehead in desperation?
Take a deep breath and invite your body to soften.
When facing this reality without much agency for transformation and collective change, we feel paralysed. There’s really nothing we can do, we think.
So we resign. We give up.
What’s the point of putting effort into something that’s already lost?
The problem, though, isn’t outside—it’s inside of us.
We don’t have the capacity to deal with such life-threatening, overwhelming problems. I mean, we can’t even find the courage to walk up to Craig at work and say sorry for that thing we messed up. Or ask our neighbor Kyle for a hand with the groceries. Or say no to Becky, who always wants to hang out and complain about her annoying boyfriend.
What we really need is the ability to face these scary moments—to learn to stand in the midst of the storm, feet firmly planted on the ground. To gravitate toward the fear instead of away from it all.
And how do we do that?
Resourcing.
And guess what? That’s where a yoga asana practice comes in.
It supports us in groundedness, strength, flexibility, balance, softness, open-heartedness, authenticity, realness, and expression.
It gives us a safe space for regulation—for coming back to ourselves, our center, our values, and what we care about. We’re nourished by breath and movement and reminded that at least a tiny speck of this world is still okay.
In the here and now, we are safe.
In the here and now, we can let go and enjoy.
And we need that reassurance in order to gain perspective.
In that way, yoga isn’t all love and light. It’s quite the opposite.
It prepares us. It gives us the resources to dig into the messiness of life, and still stand strong knowing we can handle it. Knowing we can stand up for what’s important to us and all sentient beings around us.
And so, I leave us all with these questions:
What will I do today to resource myself?
Is there a practice I especially like?
Is there something that excites me, nourishes me, or makes me feel like a little kid again?
What can I do to put a smile on my face?
Now, go do that today!
~
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