In this issue of Canadian Yogi, we explore the gifts of yoga. Many of our contributors have shared their personal stories and insight into what yoga has given them—awareness, acceptance, flexibility, kindness, alignment, interconnection, inspiration, self-knowledge, healing, and more… Certainly, all of us with a yoga practice can reflect on ways in which yoga has expanded and transformed us and how, on a daily basis, it continues do so.
Some of our writers, who are also yoga teachers, go on to relate how they have passed these gifts on to others through their teaching.
Some of our writers, who are also yoga teachers, go on to relate how they have passed these gifts on to others through their teaching.
This is not a surprising progression. As teachers, we generally delight in sharing yoga with others and in seeing them benefit from their practice.
However, I am most taken with the articles that look beyond yoga on the mat to yoga in the broader sense. Long before I practiced yoga, I practiced karma yoga although, for many years, I did not know it by that name. A belief that we are all interconnected, that we are all part one global community, and that we are only as healthy as our most vulnerable, has informed my choices and my actions for decades. Volunteer work—within my local community, with international agencies working for equity and justice, or on environmental issues—has been a consistent part of my life. This work has been many things– engaging, boring, inspirational, frustrating, rewarding, discouraging, difficult, delightful… but, above all, it has been necessary.
As Violet Pasztor Wilson says, in her article, we create our world. Today, in a truly globalized world, where both time and space are compressed, where thoughtless or less than impeccable actions (or inactions), here (or there), have far reaching consequences, we cannot “find our bliss” through withdrawal or isolation. Instead we must engage and connect.
With openness, we need to look at who we are both individually and collectively, at our harmful patterns and destructive tendencies. Each of us must commit to doing our best, through considered action, to change what needs to be changed, and to consider and serve not just ourselves but also others.
With openness, we need to look at who we are both individually and collectively, at our harmful patterns and destructive tendencies. Each of us must commit to doing our best, through considered action, to change what needs to be changed, and to consider and serve not just ourselves but also others.
By all means, respond to Yves Panneton’s call to help the Syrian refugees, but let’s go beyond that and bring karma yoga into our daily lives. Ask someone who is alone to Christmas dinner. Teach a karma yoga class in a community that needs it. Help at your child’s school or volunteer at a local food bank or out of the cold program. Support international organizations that promote equity and peace. Push for government policies and actions that protect the environment and all our communities… These acts, and so many others, can also be the gifts of yoga.
The articles published in Canadian Yogi represent the views of the writers. Canadian Yogi is a forum for our members to exchange ideas and information. Articles do not necessarily represent the Canadian Yoga Alliance’s position.