#22: Hope
Hope speaks words of light
and looks fear deep in its eyes.
Hope allows us to walk our path
and to keep on track,
even when we’ve lost our map.
Hope holds the burning flame,
high,
despite the icy winds that chill our bones
and benight the sky.
Hope touches us, tenderly,
and whispers, sincerely,
- with its faint song among the deafening
throng that takes up all the space within -
its gentle call
singing to all hearts,
that nothing in this life
can be rebuilt
without first falling apart.
To be honest, it feels hard writing about hope with everything that’s going on.
There is so much occurring that I wish I could change, both globally and personally. But, in particular, addressing our drastically changing climate is a primary concern.
After all, there’s not much point to anything on a broken planet.
Anyway, Cop28 has just begun, and I - as a mother, as a yoga practitioner, and as a human on planet Earth - hope, more than anything, that the world’s leaders are listening.
Ever since I was a little kid (back in the 1980s), when we would, at school, design campaigns to try and save the polar bears, I have been aware of the vulnerability of nature and of how mankind has been destroying it.
But I guess I’ve always assumed that the ‘grown-ups’ would eventually do something. Because, surely, if it was ever that bad, they would. Right?!?
Like many, as a young (and, possibly, distracted) person growing up in the West, I suppose I didn’t want to engage too much with the issue because, if I’m honest, it scared me.
Apparently it’s far easier to cut-off from the sources of our discomfort than to turn and face them.
In fact, I’d say that my yoga journey has been mostly about me not turning away anymore: from reality and from myself.
Like many people, my practice is based on presence, and I’d say it’s about being with everything, exactly as it is, and with all that I am, exactly as I am.
And this is often far from comfortable.
But how else can I show up on my mat when truth (satya) is one of the key principles, not just of the practice, but of my practice?
Which means that, sometimes, I turn up and I am conflicted.
Sad.
Angry.
Confused.
Numb.
And then also peaceful.
Content.
Grateful.
Which, like I said, can be uncomfortable, but as well as that, massively interesting.
It can also be isolating. Because this internal tussle isn’t often outwardly expressed by mainstream Yoga as being a part of the practice, and it means that, from the outside, yoga looks like it’s just a lot of hanging upside down and endless wishful thinking.
Now, I’m not pointing fingers, not at all, but, sometimes, I feel we (not just we as humans but we: the people who are interested in yoga and meditation etc…) unconsciously hide behind our desire to be ‘accepting’ of everything. As though it’s some sort of badge of spiritual righteousness. Then we can *unintentionally ignore the things that need (and deserve) our attention.
We tell ourselves that we are going-with-the-flow and practicing ‘non-attachment’, but, maybe, just maybe, we’re actually terrified?
As the smart ones would say: Fear can disguise itself so cleverly.
Which is a shame because doing the ‘right’ things would not only be empowering, by becoming ‘yoga in action’, but, also, it could offer us the chance of knowing and understanding and feeling hope.
Real, true hope.
Because you can’t feel real, true hope until you want something as much as you need to breathe.
So, yes, it’s Christmas, but things, for so many of us, feel relentless and hard. And so, in order to be hopeful and to feel hope’s power, we first need to feel our feelings.
Whether it’s the cost-of-living-crisis, our vulnerable climate, multiple wars, geopolitics, or just our day-to-day struggles that make the uphill climb appear endless, it would be utter BS for me not to acknowledge that these issues exist - and that they are interconnected.
But, that’s what we do, here in the West, at this time of year, don’t we?
We distract ourselves with our busy-ness.
With our ‘need’ to go and buy this and that.
We numb it all with consumption.
(Which is only adding to the problems of our near-wrecked world).
And, just as ignorantly, I think, if we’re that way inclined, we numb it with our ‘practices’, and when we talk only of ‘light and love’.
And the truth is that those things alone just ain’t gonna cut it.
In relation to the climate, we need to vocalise - with love - our discontent and call out inequality. Connecting with one another as we do.
And we need to exercise our power - with kindness - to demand the changes that could create a fairer and healthier world for everybody.
We simply cannot become the change-makers that we need to become if we’re too scared to be real, and perhaps labelled as ‘negative’ or ‘toxic’, or ‘not-working-high-enough’ on a spiritual level.
Need I say it, but to be able to practice yoga and to have the time and space to do so is a privilege. A privilege not known by many.
And yet there are estimated to be 300 million of us around the world!
Just thinking about the potentials of that makes me hopeful. Imagine what could be achieved!
So, what’s stopping us?
Contrary to popular, modern belief, Yoga isn’t just about being ‘positive’.
In fact, I’d say it’s anything but; it’s about being honest (and kind, observing ahimsa, of course) and hopeful.
Yoga acknowledges suffering. It doesn’t turn away.
Take the challenges we come across in our asana practice. There is magic to be found in practicing asana with courage and commitment.
Also, Yoga philosophy teaches us to do as much as we can, with pure intention, and then, and only then, do we ‘let go’ and ‘accept’.
Think of the great yogi Mahatma Gandhi and all that he did to liberate India, with light and love, for sure, but he also actually did something.
When hope is enabled with action, and motivated by love, it can accomplish incredible things.
So, my HOPE for now, as we move into the festive season and as the end of this year comes to a close and we begin to look ahead, is that we have the courage to be with the truth of who we really are, and with how things really are and how we really feel, so that we can turn and face whatever it is that we really need to face.
All this so that we, as yoga practitioners especially, can learn how to carry the flame of hope and protect it, no matter what stormy conditions may threaten it.
And that we continue to look to those who are shining beacons of light - with the authentically clear beams that come only from a source that is aware and engaged - that looks fear deep in its eyes and still chooses to shine.
Truth wrapped in hope.
Lighting the way for us all.
That sort of light, that is what the world needs right now and it is where hope - real, true hope - springs from.
As part of my prep for this issue, I came across a video of the inspiring poet Maya Angelou reading a poem called Amazing Peace.
It is powerful and it seemed fitting.
My other shares:
I am trying to have a greener approach to Christmas this year, taking inspiration from ideas such as The 12 R’s of Christmas.
I really hope that Louise Harris’ We Tried is the U.K. Christmas No.1. Let’s make it so: Listen. Like. Share.
I recently read A Map of Hope and Sorrow by Eyad Awwadawnan and Helen Benedict. It is both eye-opening and humbling and it brings the whole concept of what it means to have hope to a different level.
TYL in 2024
When I set out at the beginning of the year, with only a loose plan to write a monthly, heartfelt newsletter about Yoga, I had no idea where I would go with it.
Creating The Yoga Letters (TYL) has been wonderful, I love it, and I am happy to say that the readership is growing beautifully.
I am grateful to each and every reader for being here and I will never forget the kindness and generosity that I have received.
Thank you.
In 2024, I aim to continue with the monthly newsletters, so if you have any ideas about the topics that you’d like me to write about, then please let me know.
At some point soon I will publish the themes for 2024 and I’d love to have your input.
As per every issue, please find your journal pages below, and here is this month’s playlist:
To End, I wanted to share with you a beautiful Yoga Nidra practice that I found.
Deep, purposeful rest is never wasteful, especially at Christmas, and I hope that it helps you to be hopeful.
Really, truly hopeful.
With peace, love, and kindness,
Louisa x
P.S.
I hope you know that I am learning and unlearning and relearning the stuff that I write about, all of the time; I don’t have it sussed. But listening to wisdom like this helps me to try and make sense of it.
“May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.”
Ada V. Hendricks
