Yoga and the Gift of Space

Jay Crangle, ClimateYogi Guest Blog Contributor

These past few weeks my world has felt both very big and very small. Like many others, Covid has meant I have spent most days at home. My house and I have become good friends. I have become accustomed to the way the sun’s rays peak past the blinds each morning; the creak of the floorboards beneath my mat as I salute that same sun.

While our fields of experience have narrowed, the challenge confronting us feels vast. We are often unwilling or unable to change our ways to confront the climate crisis. And now it is as though the Earth has asked us to practice. 

Amongst all this I am reminded of the gift of yoga. Yoga is there for us in every crisis – pandemic, climate. One of its greatest offerings is the gift of space. Space to exhale. Space to consider our actions. Space to contemplate what we can do to live with integrity and love.

Space to breathe

My last few weeks working from home have been a flurry of Zoom calls. While I am grateful for a job (though not always for the meetings...) I often think how much better our interactions would be if we just took a moment to connect with our breath first.

As I often say to my students, our breath is a barometer of how we’re feeling. Yoga gives us the opportunity to tune into this – to see how we are, in this moment. It gives us the space to shift our mood and our energy through changing our breath. This is as much needed in times of existential threat as it is in meetings, yet without yoga we rarely do it in day-to-day life. 

Space in small spaces

Just as I have become accustomed to the confines of my home, I have also become accustomed to the habits of my partner. We both work from home, and our home is small. So while there is much love, there are also times when a dirty dish takes on the significance of a crime against humanity.

I credit yoga with giving me space to think before acting. To choose my words carefully. When I think about how we care for our planet I am reminded what a valuable gift this is. To find the space to reflect on what we do before doing it is an essential to ensuring we give back more than we take. This is a gift during a crisis whether in health or on a planetary scale. 

Space to see our place in the universe

Both Covid and the climate crisis remind us how interconnected we are. Our food, our wellbeing, our culture is all closely interwoven with each other and the Earth. Yoga reminds of our common humanity. It connects us with our place as part of the greater whole.

We all want to live well and thrive. By helping us slow down, yoga gives us space to ponder how we do that. We can use yoga’s ethical principles to guide us when we ask - what do I want to leave behind? What sort of Earth do I want to live in when this is all over?

Yoga as an anchor in uncertainty

In a time of great uncertainty, yoga is our anchor and our path to freedom. It gives us the freedom to breathe and to contemplate how we can be kind to one another.

It doesn’t mean dirty words won’t sometimes still be exchanged over dirty dishes. It does mean we have the space to see what’s in front of us in the present moment. It gives us the space to accept the here and now, and take action on what’s within our gift to change.

Jay lives in Aotearoa New Zealand. By day she fights climate change at a sustainability consortium. By night she's a writer and yoga teacher.