Is yoga a pathway to improving our society?
What can a system for development, that is, perhaps, 5000 years old, have to teach us in the 21st century?
As the author, Amelia Meister, says: “As a society, we are out of touch. We’re out of touch with our bodies, our families, our communities and our Earth. This is one of the reasons such horrible crises perpetuate in our society”.
Through yoga, she noticed how she and others became much more aware of various issues in society and motivated to do something positive about them. Through a raising of awareness, firstly through the body and breath, an ability rose to see the bigger picture more clearly; the inter-connectedness of everything and the true value of the things in life that matter.
She mentions Michael Stone’s Yoga for a World out of Balance, which outlines the ethics of yoga.
She sums up the value of yoga, “In a society that values consumption, constant doing, competition and disconnection, yoga can offer many gifts. The practice of slowing down, accepting our bodies where they are at in any moment and connecting to our breath gives us the space to expand our awareness beyond the small thoughts in our heads about what we need to buy or what we look like”.
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