"karma" yoga

Until recently, I've misperceived the practice of yoga as only that of ASANA-- the physical postures and exercises meant to strengthen and release the body...

The practice of yoga is a service to our Selves, individual and collective. Through this personal endeavor, by heightening our consciousness, our awareness, our “awakeness,” and becoming a sound mind in a sound body, we can more effectively serve those around us. By turning inward and facing with honesty and love that which we find there, we cultivate the ability to see the outside world with more compassionate eyes. Here, for me, is where the connection between yoga and service takes root. What I do with the training in this powerful practice has and will continue to impact my own understanding of myself and my place in things, grounding me and inspiring me simultaneously and it is upon this foundation that all I do from here on out will be built.
I hope explicitly and directly to connect the teaching of yoga to my other passions in the context of “service,” particularly because I know the transformative power it holds as a compliment to anything and everything we each do. Specifically, there is one demographic in which I hope to apply my learning as a means of sharing the gift it’s given to me. I would love to work with adolescents, introducing them to this method of relaxation, of concentration, of dedication. I have worked with this population in various contexts, most recently and directly as an English teacher and a coach. Kids in middle and high school are searching for something to ground them in this tumultuous time when everything in their worlds is turning upside down and inside out. Many don’t get enough exercise, or they get too much overtraining for one or another specific sport. Many students, particularly those in the less privileged situations (such as where I did my student teaching in New York City) have such profound stressors and negative influences, on top of the usual horrors of “teenagehood,” to deal with that they cannot even begin to commit to fulfilling the responsibilities that the worlds of school and their social networks demand of them. It is they, as well as all teens, who would undoubtedly benefit incredibly from the practice of yoga. Even simple exposure to it and the ideas that are manifested within its rich and multifaceted tradition could serve to ground and sustain, and at the same time uplift and inspire young people to take care of themselves body, mind, and spirit. It has the potential, with the connection through an empathetic teacher, to instill confidence and compassion. Essentially, it offers a space in which people in this stage in life, who so often are written off as being lazy or apathetic or lost or unappreciative by adults and by their peers, and deemed failures and losers by themselves, to realize that they are unique and powerful and worthy individuals. They become empowered because they are their own teachers in this practice.
I have already spoken to the Boys and Girls club in my town about setting up free community yoga classes for kids their and I am offering an after-school program at the school where I currently work. I would love in the future to bring this into more schools throughout the country. The connection between body and mind is a profound one—and yoga, as an integral part of the school day is not just practical on a logistical level (the fact being that the kids are already here and don’t need to be driven or bused to another location for expensive classes) but also practical in the sense that it sharpens and focuses and calms the mind to prepare for academic learning.