I have noticed a theme in my conversations with students, clients and teachers this week. While we’re doing pretty well these days, and don’t want to complain, we miss our friends! More than ever we acknowledge that we are social beings.

Social isolation and loneliness have been a concern for some time now, especially as our world becomes more virtual and extended families are increasingly spread apart.

But there is an exception, and that is amongst people who are spiritually minded, have a spiritual practice, and essentially a relationship with what we might call the Unseen. It could be thoughts of a loved one, an ancestor, an enlightened being or Saint, an Angel, or God.

Even our yoga pose practice can become a container for cultivating a feeling of relationship, connection and love. We would call this a bhakti type of practice and involves using our asana practice like a meditation in motion or prayer. The Sun salutation is a nice container or sequence for this kind of practice. Inherently it offers us the opportunity to cultivate our relationship and appreciation for nature, through the image of the Sun.

Many of you already know that on my walks in nature I feel as though the trees are my friends, and I quite literally find myself talking to them and experiencing a response which might be understood as a reflection of my higher self, universal intelligence, or God.

May you expand your understanding and experience of friendship, and feel how the loving vibrations that you create come back to you ten-fold!

With love, and “with you” in Spirit,
Julie

Content related to this months theme:
Guiding Theme | Issue #76 | A Salute to Friendship
Yoga Philosophy | Issue #77 | Yoga Psychology to Uplift our Spirits
Our Yoga Nature | Issue #78 | Nature, Loved-ones and the Unseen
Yoga Therapy | Issue #79 | Inspired Practice: Salute to Friendship