Dear Yogis,
We can’t just be an observer, we have to be participants in our own life experience.
If you want some honey from the pot- looking at it, seeing the color of it, is not going to give you the deep experience of its sweetness.
You have to open up the top and reach in to take the honey, actively bring it to your mouth to enjoy its flavor and as it is with life.
In our culture, especially with social media, we may be conditioned into a state of passive observation. Just watching and maybe hearing, observing, waiting for someone else to take action. But, there’s an important part missing when we allow that to go on too long: The participation in our own growth.
Something happens in your brain when you are watching something on a screen- it convinces the brain you are participating when in actuality you are not. This is probably why watching sped up cake icing tutorials on Instagram is so satisfying and addictive!
Nevertheless when it comes to the things we hear from our yoga teachers or things we read in the yogic texts, enacting the things you learn on a daily basis, in daily life, is paramount to this practice.
Just action will lead us into darkness but just knowledge will lead us into even deeper darkness. We must marry the two to achieve the kind of inner fulfillment we all crave.
If we are sitting back and allowing unconscious conditionings of our past to replay or saying I’ll make it happen tomorrow, over and over again we are missing the opportunity.
Yoga is integrity in action. Translating every experience, every lesson, every person you meet as a teacher, an opportunity to practice your yoga with your whole heart, fully present and fully invested.
Your significant other may be the greatest teacher of your life, your boss, your greatest enemy- all of these beings serve us the lessons of yoga,—tolerance, compassion, patience, fortitude and peace in action.
The only way to experience the higher sweetness of what yoga has to offer is by making the effort and having the bravery to be an active participant in the process of transformation.
We do this by taking our Sadhana (spiritual practices) as a non-negotiable. Getting on your mat, meditating, doing the breath work, studying the texts, self study through journaling and therapy, taking on the association of others on this path, it all brings us into active participation with our inner growth. It allows us to experience all the sweetness yoga has to offer.
Take a moment to think about what this will look like in your life? Where may you just be sitting back, procrastinating, just watching, just waiting, and not being an active participant in fulfilling your dreams, fostering your growth, and practicing integrity in action? Then internally commit to making the change for yourself. Get back to your practice and dive in deep.
In love,
Amanda and the good folks at Revolution Yoga
Originally shared in our September 2022 newsletter.