Adjusting to a Covid World
When I was first asked to write a Blog for YCTY it was long before our world had changed, before our world had become virtual, isolating and uncertain. Back then, I was planning to write about how I found yoga, what inspired me to become a yoga instructor and my personal growth that followed. I am happy to save that story for another day.
Now that our world has taken this unexpected, unprecedented turn, so, of course, has our yoga community. What does yoga, specifically our personal practice of yoga, look like and how does it feel today? Most importantly, what is the upside? What are the silver linings? Given the anxiety that all this uncertainty is causing, it is important to focus on the positive. Luckily, Yoga is the best platform to focus on the positive.
Finding a Community Using Yoga
For many of us, and certainly for me, yoga is more than the physical, mental and spiritual practice. Yoga goes far beyond our mat. Yoga is a community. There is a community within the studio and those who practice there, but there is a much larger community of all those who practice yoga in the world. Right now, community is one of the many things we are all missing and probably craving. For many, it is a basic human need, yet here we are… isolated and lonely.
We cannot gather in groups, we can’t hug, we can’t get a personal connection. I find that the live, virtual, on-line classes provide a sense of community that is difficult for some – and impossible for others – to find. Besides just knowing that we are in “real time” with other like minded people joining together for the same purpose, we get a chance to chat, catch-up, get immediate and personal feedback. I crave this and it fills a void for me. Virtual yoga creates and gives anyone and everyone a very necessary opportunity for community.
Online yoga provides a connection and sense of community, while helping people to maintain their personal practice and enjoy the benefits of yoga. Those are the upsides to virtual yoga and while I am so grateful to YCTY for providing this opportunity, this is yoga and would happen regardless of the world today.
The Silver Lining
Covid has resulted in a silver lining that would not be happening if this isolation and change had NOT occurred. That silver lining is our “home practice”. For me, and I’m sure for many, our studio is our sanctuary. Where we practice yoga, it is a special place. There is a feeling in the air, a certain smell, a vibe. Our minds shift the minute we walk into the studio. Now, our home is our studio and that is a wonderful thing. My sanctuary is now just a few steps away, in the next room and it forever will be because of this strange time.
The article was specially written by Amy Rockwell for You Call This Yoga.