Discovering My Truth Through My Yoga Practice
By: Elizabeth Adofo-Moroney
One of the most profound things I discovered about yoga when I first was introduced to the practice was its ability to guide you on a path of self-discovery. Yoga helped me self-reflect in a way that I wasn't used to.
It was less about how well I think I could do a certain task and more about how the task actually made me feel.
I began to look inward and started to question so many elements of my day-to-day life. It dawned on me that so much of what I was doing with my time was not me just functioning, but surviving. When in actuality, all I really wanted was to be thriving.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for taking accountability and many areas of my life can be improved by my own doing. However, I know I am not the only one in a state of survival. So many of us feel this way - lost, wavering, sick with anger and pain. These feelings are often reflections of the current world we live in, rife with greed, corruption and division. Those of us from marginalized communities feel the strain on ever increasing attacks. That's when I came to the understanding that just like every other area of my life, yoga also had a place in my fight for social justice.
Yoga is more than just positive affirmations and morning mantras. It can be a tool in our understanding of how we need to come together in unity.
It provides us with the confidence to seek the radical truth that we are all here on the earth with equal value. The self-reflection path we take prepares us to live authentically in our truths and this can be such a powerful tool to amplify the voices of those marginalized in our communities. We all have a role to play in seeking justice and we should not be complacent in turning a blind eye. Nor should we shroud ourselves in the idea that peace can only be achieved through being silence and meek. Justice has a huge part to play in our goal for peace. Where there is no justice, there can be no peace.
So I encourage all those who want to take part in radically changing our world to find for themselves how they too can use yoga in this path. For some, this may mean acknowledging certain uncomfortable truths on ideas of race, gender and sexuality. For others, it may simply be holding space for others to speak their truth and actively listening to their hearts and minds.
These are just a few examples of what change look like to you. There often isn't one path or one right way to seek social justice. Yoga reminds us that through our unity, we can always find strength to make a difference.
Wondering about Kula's stance on social justice and yoga?
Learn more about what we stand for and how we bring our yoga into action here.
About Elizabeth:
Elizabeth is a passionate yogi, blogger and anti-racist activist. Born and raised in London, she also has a deep love for travelling and recently moved to the island of Bermuda with her husband and pet cat. She was first drawn to yoga back in 2018 when she joined her local studio, looking to fulfil her new year's resolution of finding an exercise that she liked. She quickly began to understand that yoga was so much more than just fitness and deeply connected to the spirituality of the practice. She is constantly developing her practice and hopes to complete her teacher training with Kula in 2023.