Yoga: an embrace of life
In Western society there is a great emphasis on striving to be a better version of yourself. In a culture where it is suggested that life is engineerable and happiness is measured in achievement and development opportunities, there can be considerable pressure to perform in order to stand up in “the game of success.
Because, when are you good enough? Does the eternal quest of self-improvement ever end?
The idea that as a human being you are not yet good enough is deeply embedded in our society and affects our choices, relationships and well-being. Not only does it affect our personal lives, it also has the consequence that the basis of many trainings, self-help books and courses are based on this same thinking. As a result, we perpetuate a fallacy of thinking and get further and further away from who we essentially are: part of the same nature and life force we experience around us: complete, connected and just right.
Because we do not consciously experience this essence, our thinking can completely take over. As a result, we think and experience that we are separate and incomplete. To fill that emptiness, we start looking for a better version of ourselves based on that thinking. And so we can end up in a perpetual vicious cycle.
Although this thinking also found its way into many yogic approaches after the 14th century, through the influence of patriarchal systems, and therefore yoga can also be a pursuit of a distant ideal, the message of authentic yoga is radically different.
Yoga is relationship. An intimate relationship with your essence. With your loved ones. With the world. With life in all its aspects.
You, too, are part of nature.
There is nothing philosophical or spiritual about that; it is a fact. Man is nature. Just like trees, bees or mountains.
The forgotten teachings of authentic yoga offer an extremely simple and direct practice that embodies (and as a natural consequence realizes) the ideals spoken of in the ancient texts as the direct participation in the essence of life.
As an embrace of life, as simple as breathing into life itself.
Would you like to learn more about the lost teachings of yoga?
You are welcome in our heart of yoga retreats or in individual counseling & yoga therapy.
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