Living in Paradox
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"It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them...."
~ Aldous Huxley
“The success of Yoga must not be measured by how flexible your body becomes, but rather by how much it opens your heart."
~ T. K. V. Desikachar
“I came to yoga by way of the breath.
When someone has experienced trauma, the breath is the most useful resource to stabilize the nervous system. The breath sends a signal that all is well; everything is okay. In a culture that would rather my black body not exist, let alone breathe, this feeling of “all is well” has been more than illusive. From the moment that I took my first breath until now, I have been on a journey to find air, to create an expansive inhale and a deepening of experience with my exhale.
At the age of four, I was diagnosed with asthma, following in the footsteps of both of my parents.
It wasn’t until college that I was prescribed an inhaler that allowed me access to fuller, deeper breaths. Many years later, I am still using it. But college wasn’t all deep breathing. I had become keenly aware of oppression, racism and white supremacy. I was a black girl at a mostly white college in Colonial Williamsburg. I didn’t fit into the Black Student Movement because I wasn’t “black enough” and I didn’t fit in with the white students because I am not white. So, I stood somewhere between, trying to find my footing and the grey zone
I was first introduced to yoga in college. I remember being the only black girl in our fitness class practicing yoga. My understanding of oppression and privilege made me feel disembodied. That yoga class was not a space for affirmation, validation or spiritual transformation. I left that fitness class and college lacking a deeper connection with my body, mind, heart and spirit. I graduated college in three years to allay the burden of my mother having to pay off an even larger student loan."
~ Excerpts from Skill in Action, by Michelle Cassanda Johnson.
No mud, no lotus.
~ Traditional Buddhist saying
