April 2023
“This is one way of speaking about mindfulness, or being present: coming home to ourselves. When we bring our mind back to our body, we come home. We could consider this state as our true home. This home inside of us is a home no one can take away from us, and it cannot be damaged or destroyed. No matter what happens around us, if we can find this home inside of us, we are always safe.”
Kaira Jewel Lingo, We Were Made for These Times
One of the most valuable things I have gained from my yoga and mindfulness practice has been a tangible sense of being at home within myself. It hasn’t always come easily.
There are certainly times when finding that sense of center feels elusive. We can sometimes feel overwhelmed by difficult emotions or an overactive mind or challenging circumstances. We all have moments where we find ourselves ungrounded, unsettled, stressed, or filled with tension. Many times, we default to trying to seek and find a sense of home externally – in other people or things, or in trying to control our environment or the circumstances around us.
Sometimes the stress, tension, or trauma that we hold in our bodies can make it very difficult to be fully present within ourselves. To be honest, I think yoga and meditation alone won’t transform our experience of ourselves in any real, sustaining way if we aren’t doing the deep inner work of understanding ourselves and the way we operate. Also, many times, what we become aware of when we tune into our inner experience is too much to sit with on our own. Finding a mental health professional to support our journey can be a necessary and important partner in yoga, mindfulness or other spiritual practice. I have benefitted over the years from time with skillful therapists in addition to yoga and meditation practice.
Through awareness practice, we develop an increasing ability to be with and find steadiness within uncomfortable sensations, emotions, and experiences. When we gain facility with being with rather than running away from what’s happening inside, the swirl inside us can be like the glitter in a snow globe settling to the bottom, leaving our internal space clearer. We might begin to have a glimpse of the home that is always within us. We remember that home, that center, that is always there. We are reminded that it never leaves us. We can always come back.
It might be valuable to take some time to reflect on the things that bring us home to ourselves. It might be yoga and meditation, but likely lots of other things make the list as well – walking in nature, dancing to music we love, singing in the car to the radio, cooking or eating delicious food, talking with a trusted friend, journaling, making art, reading. We might ask ourselves when and where do we feel most at home? When do we feel most alive and fully present? It is likely in activities where we are fully present in our body.
The gift of our practice is that we can cultivate presence, aliveness, and a sense of home one breath at a time. We can practice coming home through paying full attention to our bodies as we move in yoga practice, by orienting to our breath and sensory experiences in meditation. Presence, mindfulness, and a sense of home can begin to arise wherever we are, whatever we are doing. Then we begin to remember that home is not a location, but a state of being.
We remember we are always home.
Where and when do you find that sense of home? Send me a note – I’d love to hear from you.
With care,
Erin Joosse | she/her
Source Yoga | studio director
Upcoming opportunities to remember the home in yourself:
- Somatic Yoga: Grounding Through the Skeletal System with Karen Peters, 3 Saturdays, April 15th-29th Beginning this Saturday
- Intro to Yoga 3 Week Series, Sundays, April 16th-30th
- Once monthly Relax & Restore in person with Lori Ferry Friday 4/21, 5:30-7pm
