Yoga means 'union'. The goal of yoga is to create 'oneness' - within ourselves, with each other and with our natural surroundings. Yoga does not believe in divisions yet our western mind likes to categorize and segregate and classify things and people. When you pass a homeless person calling out for spare change, what do you think? When you pass heroine addict passed out in the street, are there judgments that run through your mind? If I have money in my pocket and am free of addictions, am I so different from these people. Yoga says that we are one with each other - we are a part of everyone and everything. I think I am beginning to understand this concept more and more.
Through my practicum experience this semester, I have had the fortune of meeting some amazing women. These women have had very different upbringings than me and many of them lead very different lives with numerous struggles that I could not even imagine myself going through. They are more courageous and brave and inspiring than I could ever hope to be. Yet on many levels, we are one and the same with the same needs for love, connectedness, self esteem and the opportunity to contribute. It is only the mind that points out all the differences - the heart quickly discovers that we are so similar.
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