In the four months we have lived here in Launceston, I have had the absolute privilege of meeting (and teaching) many beautiful and diverse communities around me; the organisations that use The Orchard Centre, local home-educators, shopkeepers, barbers, farmers, Pop Choir to name just a few. The community that I love the most though are my neighbours. I love them. I tell them every Monday evening in our yoga session.
I love my neighbours and I love my yoga and soon after relocating to Cornwall I wanted to bring the love of those two things together. We started in the garden. That added in my love of Nature. Some evenings, in Savasana, we would look up at the stars, other evenings we would share the space with bats and birds of prey; what’s not to love?! It’s been a wrench coming inside as the days have got shorter and the air, cooler. However, that has brought its own fun. We get tangled in wires, have to stop to separate PoppyCat from the present she has brought in, someone always has their face in the cat litter or cat food…you get the picture. We swear and groan and sometimes cry (and afterwards we eat cake!) But behind all of this is love and a sense of being safe in our space and in our bodies.
Love cannot exist alongside judgment and this is something that yoga teaches us. At the start and throughout my classes, I remind my students not to judge themselves, their bodies or others, not to force themselves into shapes they’ve seen on social media sites and above all to listen in and learn from their own unique minds and bodies. Comparison is a form of judgment and suffering comes from wishing things were other than they are. Accepting who we are in any given moment can ease away criticism (and conditioning) and allow the love to flow.
I’m reading a book by John Stirk at the moment called, ‘Deeper Still.’ It’s a book for yoga teachers and it’s by no means an easy read, but I’m grateful for the learning. He talks about energy fields and love. He talks about the fact that loving releases oxytocin and reduces thought. He talks about how that sense of loving is shared in a group through our fields of energy. I feel blessed to have the gift of yoga that allows me, actually compels me, to facilitate a shared space where we can come together and bathe in love.
Do get in touch if you’d like to know more about the difference yoga can make to your life. Check out my website at http://www.cateharveyyoga.co.uk
Namaste.