Finding inner peace

Browsing through Instagram often leaves me with the sinking feeling that there isn’t much left to yoga in 2020 but performing juvenile acrobatics in Lulu Lemon leggings. As yoga teachers, it is part of our job to communicate about our classes and practice and Instagram is a great, fun, and easy way to do so. But at what expense do we use it? Despite the wisdom that our yoga practice supposedly equip us with, we fall again in the existential pit of both trying to fit our fantasized version of our self and being validated by others. Ever so naturally, we submit ourselves, our bodies, our physical performances and our good spirit over and over again to the approval of others. At the same time images of impressive yoga athletes schizophrenically showcasing complex inducing bodies while advocating self-acceptance and humility in the legend multiply on social networks. This feels so wrong, and utterly paradoxical. It’s the kundalini biting its own tail.

Yoga, at its core, is a discipline that teaches us how to break free from misleading ego agitations such as self-judgement, insecurities, worries and frustrations. The idea is not to ignore our feelings, but to accept them and decrypt what they mean, identify what triggers them, and understand our reactions. In short, it educates us to know ourselves better so that we can restore a sincere connection to our true self. To let go of the idea of our self constructed by our ego’s expectations, and embrace being as we are. Meditation and yoga prompt us to live more aligned with who we truly are. By restoring the connection with our inner self we become capable of identifying the signals our body and mind send us such as stress, pain, fear… These symptoms we usually fear and bury become indications of what issues need to be addressed. We learn the possibility to repair and improve. So that in turn our notion of Self doesn’t bother us as much; and our synergetic link with our inner essence and outer environment prevails harmoniously. Patiently we train to care less about our own limited shape, our own image, and embrace more naturally the diffuse rhythm of all things united together. Hence participating in the eternal infinite development of the highest Self. Yoga is a discipline designed, at its roots, to open the path to inner peace. However in a twisted turn of event, yoga suddenly turned into one of the most lethal ways to promote a beautiful lifestyle which skinny ambassadors wholesomely preach from the poolside of the most exclusive ecolodge paradises. How to live our lives with purpose is a decision best addressed by our mind. Nobody else than ourself can know what it means, deep down, to live our life with purpose.

Of course ancestral disciplines can only survive the passing of time if they feel relevant, if they have the capacity to endorse something of the current generation. In this regard, yoga is an inspiring model. At a time when we suffer from a system that ceases to make sense, thousands of years after Patanjali’s Yoga sutra, its philosophy resonates urgently within us. Because we are willing to reconnect with natural gestures, to stay attentive and care for what matters. And at the core of its teaching, yoga invites us to not only do that, but also to come new to every situation. It is only logical that the discipline itself applies this principle. In so doing yoga has become in the last few years one of the most widely tested and approved method to alleviate anxiety. Thanks to its powers to reconcile us with our natural ways, yoga at the wake of the 2020s feel as relevant as ever. Its existential possibilities remain infinite and eternal, providing we take on an honest physical, energetic and spiritual journey.

Buying an eco-friendly yoga mat and packing our fridge full of raw bars and Fidji water might not singlehandedly calm our mental unrest and physical hang ups. Joining a yoga studio and actually attend class on a regular basis will definitely help with setting us on the path of both leaner limbs and more acceptance. And if you are actually willing to venture on this path with honesty and humility and gratitude, you may find a whole new landscape of perception that could indeed bloom into a much more content and healthy version of yourself.

In a yoga practice, one learns to know and accept oneself, humbly, authentically, gratefully, without judgement. Yoga is a journey into knowing oneself, into reconnecting with our most authentic voice and intuitions. It teaches us the discipline to consciously connect with oneself and others with kindness and openness. Yoga teaches us openness and flexibility - first physically and progressively these qualities spread to our mind and nervous system. Guided by the breath, our body starts changing and our whole demeanour follows as our body, mind and nervous system align. A good practice enables us to calm the agitations we feel inside and concentrate both body and mind into a sharpness and mobilisation calmly led by a profound and rested breath. Progressively, practicing enables us to let go sufficiently of the mundane and find a benevolent momentum that puts our ego at rest and set us free to express our true self.

Physical exercise wakes up our body, it ignites our energy and sharpens our sensations. At the end of each practice, in savasana, as our body calms down after a challenging physical effort and focus, we release tensions inside out so that all frontiers of body and ether are blurred into relaxation, and our essence calmly become whole. Our essence is no longer determined by the inner and outer limits we are so used to distinguishing. As our sense of duality lifts, we can become one with the universe at least for one fleeting moment.

Feeling sharply alive is what brings us most joy. In fact the act of integrating our own reality doesn’t come to us naturally. More often than not it actually takes us by surprise. Such as when we fall in love, or we suddenly become acutely aware of the beauty of a landscape, or feel the release of laughter and the way that feeling acutely connects us to the present moment. Being acutely conscious of our immediate action of living is rare and precious. The lower our energy is and the harder it gets to focus, and the more unavailable this quality of alertness becomes. We can go through years feeling barely alive, absent from our own lives. The discipline of yoga practiced with dedication develops the synergetic link between our energy/connection/focus, leading us to feeling trully present, awakened.

We can only perceive what the mind is willing to pay attention to. So we shouldn’t waste our time paying attention to things that bring our spirit down, we could miss all the wonderful and ordinary things that can make us happy. Peace comes from within. Once we find inner peace, we can serenly connect with others, unbothered, free, ready to embrace all the opportunities that life has in store for us.