Welcome to June, and for those of you with me in the Midwest, a long-awaited stretch of good weather!

My daughter and I actually went further afield and were able to hike three National Parks a few weeks ago! We trekked through Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon National Parks, along with 25 or so other fourth and fifth graders from my daughter’s amazing Milwaukee Public School, Golda Meir. I’ve never been to that part of the United States, and the topography of mountains, canyons, and vast open spaces, without any large body of water was incredibly different to me - I was actually moved to tears as we drove into Zion and I caught a glimpse of the amazing rock formations. Overwhelming in the best way. If you’re wondering if a bunch of late elementary school kids are up to the challenge of a fair amount of hiking, the answer is YES! They did amazingly well.

It’s a little over-explained at this point, but the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means yoked. This can be interpreted in lots of ways, but one way I like to imagine it, especially through the Tantric lens of liberation through being a human on earth, is that we’re seeking communion and one-ness with everything around us - including the natural world.

That feeling of one-ness, or connection, or empathy - the ability to understand and perhaps experience the feelings of another person - is one that has actually continued to develop in human brains over the course of history, and I believe that an increased capacity for empathy is one of the great gifts of a continuing yoga practice. But I actually believe that developing empathy is best experienced and developed in shared practice, whether it’s an asana practice or group meditation, partially due to something amazing called mirror neurons. Our brains (and not just human brains) are wired to mimic and respond to mimicry - we have an instinctive urge to mimic the gestures or facial expressions, speaking cadences, and ways of moving of people that we’re in some sort of interaction, dialogue or community with. This, in turn, helps us to experience empathy, and also can feel calming. My anecdotal experience leading and participating in shared group movement is that part of what’s magical about it is the feeling of moving, together, with a bunch of other humans. 

So when those Tantric yogis went out into the world and started to create asanas that mimicked the natural world around them - I interpret that as an expression or longing to connect, or re-connect to the natural world, and to learn from plant and animal ways. John O’Donohue has a poem/prayer about this exact idea, “To Learn From Animal Being,” which I’ll leave you with. I hope we can find ways to connect and channel all the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us in these warmer days. Even in an urban setting like Milwaukee, there are magical mystical nature experiences to be unlocked at every turn. Get out there and mirror it!

To Learn From Animal Being

by John O'Donohue

Nearer to the earth's heart,

Deeper within its silence:

Animals know this world

In a way we never will.

We who are ever

Distanced and distracted

By the parade of bright

Windows thought opens:

Their seamless presence

Is not fractured thus.

Stranded between time

Gone and time emerging,

We manage seldom

To be where we are:

Whereas they are always

Looking out from

The here and now.

May we learn to return

And rest in the beauty

Of animal being,

Learn to lean low,

Leave our locked minds,

And with freed senses

Feel the earth

Breathing with us.

May we enter

Into lightness of spirit,

And slip frequently into

The feel of the wild.

Let the clear silence

Of our animal being

Cleanse our hearts

Of corrosive words.

May we learn to walk

Upon the earth

With all their confidence

And clear-eyed stillness

So that our minds

Might be baptized

In the name of the wind

And the light and the rain.

~ John O'Donohue

From: To Bless the Space Between Us