Multifarious layers of uncertainty and division fold to overshadow the now seemingly banal biblical allegories of fire, famine and pestilence, which have been a permanent fixture since the dawn of modern history.

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In the UK, we’re seeing a stark and sharp increase in murders – with women and children as the victims. Across the Middle East, denigration towards women bears a hefty weight also, and that’s set against the backdrop of war raging on. Our siblings in the US are experiencing serious political unrest, with a tremblingly tight campaign trail causing testable concern across the globe. A new wave of self-expression pops up in the guise of protests but it feels like we’re all crying louder but drowning out each other’s voices; our messages lost in the cacophony of collective cries and our separation stark.

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It's hard to comprehend exactly how the moral fabric of society has come undone. Frayed at the edges and ripped at the seams, the time has come to wonder how much longer we can go on like this. We’re faced with whispers of everything we don’t want to hear. The internet and social media amplify the noise, riddling the airwaves with discordant dis-ease. So, with toxicity precipitating through the essence of our souls, I can’t help but wonder: will we ever stitch back together a society that has come undone? The world is divided, and, by the laws of the universe, we can only reach a point where we’re so far apart we’ll have to come together again.

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Where we repel, we must attract.

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And for yoga philosophers and students alike, this is all we can hope for and continue to work towards. But we’re increasingly finding the world is pressing on us for resolution. Yoga isn’t a sticking plaster for fixing the world – but it can support us in redirecting our understanding of society at a basal level.  The raw beauty of yoga is that it’s meaning is individual to each person who practices. Stemming beyond the mat, yoga provides you with the tools to rediscover who you are and re-adjudicate your values.

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Yoga is replete with unity, as we discussed in our blog ‘What actually is yoga, anyway?’ – literally meaning to yoke, or to join, it isn’t just about connecting with people around you. It starts with reconnecting with yourself. Once you peel back the layers, excavate external noise and retreat inwards, you can determine what’s important to you. Values and ethics realign. The fog lifts and you return home to your heart. Sure, there’s an underlying moral compass and philosophy for good living with yoga, but that will always translate to something different to each of us. It’s subjective. We’re non-partisan practitioners who eventually change. Everything we’ve known before comes undone and, as we watch it unravel vertiginously across the floor, we find change. That change is manifold. We make amends with what once irritated us, we find peace in things that frustrated us and we modify our lives, so we no longer participate in those things. Subsequently, we change how we interact with and react to the world around us.

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And that’s how yoga changes the world. Not by organised mass meditations (even armies do those), that act alchemically on people’s personalities, but by shifting priorities and challenging what we think is right in this world. Yoga pants its roots deep within one’s soul and elicits change that reverberates right to the very core of who we are. Once we’re free to embody the love and compassion society’s told us is subversive and anarchic, then we can actually start to change the world.

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With love and light, 

Kate