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Feel Connected
by Katie Manitsas (Samadhi Yoga Director) - published in this month's 'Nature and Health' magazine
Q: What Makes You Feel Most Connected?
A: Yoga Off the Mat
Five years ago I moved from London to Sydney in pursuit of love. That particular romance didn’t work out, but I did meet my now husband here in Australia and we’ve recently been blessed with a beautiful baby boy.
I say I moved in pursuit of love and as well as referring to a specific relationship I also think I was searching for love in a broader context, love as a feeling of connection. I had just spent the last eight years living and working in central London; my days consisted of battling with traffic, constantly being on the go, working too hard, eating not well enough and struggling to keep my head above water financially. Despite the fact that I worked within the natural health industry which is supposed to support healthy lifestyle I felt burnt out and overwhelmed most of the time … a distinctly love-less state of affairs. When I moved to Australia I came with a very clear intention about building a sense of connection. I wanted to feel more connected to the community around me, to my body, my breath and to nature.
For me yoga was the path that enabled this deeper sense of relationship. Yoga directly translates from the exquisite ancient Indian language of Sanskrit as ‘union’. We can think of it as union of body, mind and spirit, but ultimately what is being referred to is a union between the individual and the Universal. Yoga describes an understanding that we are all one, we are all connected and what we do to others we ultimately do to ourselves. This kind of union is very deep and describes connection on its most profound level. The problem is that most of us are not this connected most of the time; for most of us it’s a journey. Yoga has taught me to start by connecting my mind to my body (through physical exercises), and to move on to connect to the sense of ‘spirit’ that resides within.
Yoga teaches that through time we can all start to connect more deeply to the world around us. We might for example start to become interested in reducing the suffering of others – becoming less self oriented – by practicing vegetarian diet and by developing an awareness of the impact our lifestyle choices have on the environment.
In this way we start to practice ‘yoga off the mat’. Yoga practice becomes much more that just a physical exercise it becomes practice of connecting on every level.
I am now in the fortunate position of running my own yoga studio – a thriving community of like minded yogis. Through yoga I am no longer pursuing love; my life is now filled with it. |
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Celebrate Christmas with Samadhi Dec 7th
