Grace is a word whose meaning is hard to describe.

My sense of grace has more of an experiential aspect to it. Knowing its meaning comes from a more sensory place that is hard to articulate.

I chose the name Yoga Grace for my business in 2017 as a way to reflect that yoga was a path to find more peace and ease for oneself. I still believe that is true but my awareness of what Grace truly means has deepened over time and practice.

Or rather, I understand now that Grace has more depth and complexity than I first perceived. Since then, as I've practiced and shared Yoga and Yoga Therapy, the less I experience Grace as a physical and energetic serenity and fluidity, and the more I feel the simultaneous vulnerability and resilience of it. Of Grace.

Yes, I have less pain and more balance within myself and I am forever grateful for that gift from Yoga. But that came more from using Yoga to practice giving myself and others the Grace to be flawed humans than it came from forward folds and backbends.

Grace is the practice of bearing witness to our lives with compassion and, when possible, hope. We move and breath and chant and meditate to create a space to experience the full range of human emotions, recognizing and releasing any judgement or punishment, so we can digest them and begin to understand that what we learn from the full spectrum of life's experiences, is what makes us stronger and more flexible.

I'm writing about this now because I think it's more important than ever that we give ourselves Grace. And, yes, ourselves means everybody.

There is so much fear and instability right now. When we feel threatened or unsafe, we are physiologically designed to have a survival response of fight, flight, freeze, or faun. It's very natural but isn't always helpful unless our lives are literally at risk in the moment. And we have a media system that is now designed to continually activate this response within us to get our attention.

But when we stay in this state of high alert, we are essentially unbalanced and reactive. We also exhaust ourselves and wear ourselves and our nervous systems down. Then it stops working and can even get its wires crossed. This is when we start to feel a lot of fatigue, anxiety, depression and chronic pain.

This isn't a post about resting -- though that is a pillar of health and a key part of bringing yourself into a sense of balance and ease.

This is a post about Grace. Giving Grace to yourselves and others. What does that look like?

Pausing. Taking the time to feel all the feels without reacting to/from them. Noticing your body in times of stress. Do you feel contraction? release? Are you hot? cold? How is your breath?
Leaning into curiosity versus judgement of yourself when you recognize you are not thinking or acting from your truest values.
Noticing when you are making judgements about the person or people who don't agree with you and get curious and compassionate about that.
Treating others--and yourself with the respect and dignity that you and every human deserve. Check this out!: https://www.dignity.us/
Forgiving yourself if you have to limit your intake of news or take breaks from life to resettle and land back within yourself. Then rejoin us and share your renewed bright energy.
Find allies and work together to build up our mutual support networks. We need each other.

Basically, just BE KIND. Yes, get angry, resist, and say no, but stay kind. Every single being that you encounter is your mirror.

This bears repeating because I can feel your resistance to that idea even before I send this out. Maybe have some curiosity about that resistance...

Every single being that you encounter in your life is your mirror.

Giving others Grace is giving yourself Grace too. Always.

Grace isn't about never stumbling and effortlessly floating through life. It's about stumbling and then getting back up and showing up with love.

I'm here to help you find your Grace!