Yoga: A Tool for Inner Regeneration
Meditation By: Mark Coleman
A Field Guide to Nature Meditation: 52 Mindfulness Practices for Joy, Wisdom and Wonder
[Find a place to sit outside. Close your eyes.]
“ Feel all the ways your body is in touch with the ground. Sense what this particular part of the earth feels like…Observe any quality of stillness, steadiness or stability, either in the earth or in yourself. Continue to feel the visceral connection with the ground as you expand your range of focus to include the whole field of sensations in your body. What other ways do you experience contact with the natural world around you?
Be aware of the sensations on your skin as the breeze kisses your face or moves your hair. Feel the wind viscerally as its force moves over your body. Notice how sounds can also be felt physically as you hear the wind whistle through the pines.
Now shift your attention to breathing. As you inhale, be curious about the quality of air. Notice if there is a particular smell perhaps from the trees, soil or flowers around you. Be curious if the air is moist or dry. Notice if it feels cool or crisp or warm or soft. As the bellows of your lungs expand, feel the sense of invigoration as you inhale. Notice the quality of release as you exhale. Be mindful how, with each breath, you are connecting with the inhale and exhale of leaves, plants, and grasses. What happens when you attune to that intimate connection?
Continue to observe the the dynamism of the inner landscape of body sensations and how intimately they are connected to the outer environment, sensing how your body is a microcosm of the earth, with its valleys and peaks, terrains of warmth and coolness, having its beauty, challenges, and range…”
[Open your eyes. How do you feel?]
We live in constant connection with the outside world through our breath - but when was the last time you took a moment to pause and consider the immensity of that? Recognizing that modern society often keeps us busy, distracted, and disconnected, Take MAR recently launched “The Nature of You - Spring Into Yoga Series” as the perfect antidote to current, fast-paced lifestyles.
What is Yoga?
Yoga, translated from Sanskrit to English, literally means to yoke or unite and is an experiential system of living aimed at removing the illusion and patterns of separateness so that people begin to see themselves as part of the interconnected whole of all existence. SO - what better way to begin to explore your connection with yourself, others, and the natural world than through a yoga practice outside!
Yoga is often thought of as merely a physical workout. While, asana, the physical postures, are an important part of a yoga practice, yoga is so much more. Part of what separates a physical yoga practice from other types of exercise is its added emphasis on mindfulness, breathwork (pranayama), and meditation (dhyana) - all of which work together to calm the fluctuations of the mind, bringing about a more pure, peaceful, interconnected state of being.
Take MAR Classes
Yoga with Take MAR is designed to hold space for you to remember your relationship with yourself and the earth - to remember your life moving with nature instead of against it. Joseph Campbell once said, “People are not looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.” This is mindfulness.
Classes begin with asana practice. It is easier to connect more intimately with the outside world by using your body than being in your head. Therefore, we will use the body as a tool to trap the mind in the present moment to prepare both the body and mind for internal practices. The physical practice is followed by a guided meditation using the sensory elements of nature to further harness your thoughts. We’ll conclude with savasana and silent meditation. At an individual level, each practice is designed to facilitate regeneration and connection, but there is also another motivation at play.
Ego and the Environment
At the root of the environmental crisis is ego. When we choose to identify exclusively with the ego, “I” and “mine,” we don’t see ourselves as part of nature, we see ourselves as separate from it. Through the journey of yoga, defined by the Bhagavad Gita as the journey of the self, through the self, to the self, and its moments of stillness and silence, opportunities arise to connect deeply with our inner consciousness. Within consciousness, we have a choice, a choice to act for the greater good or to act egocentrically with only ourselves in mind. Yoga encourages altruism (concern for the wellbeing of others) and biocentrism (belief in the inherent value of all living things). As our practice deepens, we can no longer choose to act solely from the utilitarian perspective of our individual needs. We have rediscovered the interdependence of life, and we now feel a responsibility to act with others (all of nature) in mind. Our internal experiences are directly responsible for our external actions.
Yoga as Mainstream Solution to Environmental Problems
In the words of the Greek Philosopher, Plutarch, “What we achieve inwardly, will change our outer reality.” Since the world is a reflection of us, a macrocosm of the microcosm, our personal development is necessary for societal change. Mainstream science is beginning to recognize this need and both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UN have recognized the need for internal shifts in personal and collective mindsets if we are to meet global Sustainability Goals. The need is so pressing that in 2020, a nonprofit, Inner Development Goals (IDG) was founded to move this agenda forward. The first IDG is “Being - Relationship to Self,” which is aimed at the cultivation of inner life and the development and deepening of our relationships to thoughts, feelings, and body, to help us be present, intentional, and non-reactive when faced with complexity (https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/). This is yoga.
Yoga is the study of the self as a pathway to knowing the interconnectedness of all life. It not only provides us with a roadmap for our own individual regeneration and healing, but for the collective healing and regeneration of the earth as well.
