“You clean your teeth to promote dental health. You practise yoga to promote mental health”. This rather wonderful saying was brought to my attention yesterday by a friend.
Coming back to yoga, returning to the breath, taking time out to sit quietly, these are all very simple steps towards equilibrium. Yoga practitioners may not have all the answers to our current difficulties on the planet, but they do have the tools to live alongside the questions.
A good yoga teacher uses communication and repetition. Good yoga students employ hearing and doing. Talking and listening are both concerned with the throat chakra. Right now, there is less opportunity to communicate. Wearing masks has caused us to talk less. Meeting on Zoom or Skype brings a delay to conversation. Socially distancing, and being back in lockdown, means that we are not meeting others and interacting. The throat chakra is having a rest…or is it becoming blocked?
All yoga practice removes blockages – whether these are on the physical, mental, emotional or energetic level. Yoga keeps the throat chakra healthy with postures, with pranayama practices, with chanting and with listening. As a yoga student, you are given permission to relax. You are given permission to have this space and time to yourself. You are given permission to find balance and to come back to contentment and well-being. You listen, you understand, you do.
Chanting for me is one of the best tools to use when I’m out of balance. OM Namo Narayanaya; OM Mani Padme Hum; A-U-M; the Gayatri Mantra. After half-an-hour of repeating OM Namo Narayanaya on the first Sunday of every month, I feel deeply happy. Not just balanced, not just content, but deeply happy. I return to that state of union, that oneness, a place where I merge with all that is.
Speech is incredibly powerful. Those who speak for separation, alienation, negativity are hugely damaging. Those who speak for joining, union, inclusivity, and love will heal us all. They will heal the planet.
It is important for us all to choose who we listen to. It’s important for us all to choose our words carefully. Yoga shows us the way to mental health, world health, people health. The pyramid of Giza is the throat chakra of Mother Earth. Egypt, with its wealth of history and learning, is where Mother Earth communicates. Unrest in that area is said to be cries for help. Let’s promote ease, not disease. Let’s promote rest, not unrest. Let’s promote unity, not division. Let’s promote positivity, not negativity. Let’s understand that speaking our truth, quietly and clearly, is serving everyone right now.
OM Shanti Shanti Shanti