Federal Shutdown Scholarship

Ahimsa in Action: Shutdown Scholarships

Read The Story in The Edgewood Independent Newspaper

Why I offer free yoga to federal employees during government shutdowns.

Shut-downs do tremendous harm to individuals and to the projects for which our government provides infrastructure.

One of the first rules, or values, that’s cultivated in a yoga practice is nonviolence, which starts at home. Non-violence, or ahimsa, begins with the self, and we cultivate it on the mat during yoga practice to express it into the world.

Yoga provides tools for how to use our own bodies, our own breaths, and our own attention to self-regulate. Self-regulation is another way of talking about how we can remain connected even when we disagree -maybe especially when we disagree. This ability is fundamental for us to see humanity in one another. That, in turn, is basic to fulfilling the promise of our democracy.

I have come to regard yoga as a user manual for my human experience. I’m fond of saying that if you feel some type of way, there’s yoga for that!

I hear from students about anxiety and uncertainty affecting the lives of families and individuals furloughed and working without pay, and it ripples out into their worlds. I know that a yoga practice can help with that.

If I can help people find peace and calm for themselves through this offer, then my mission will be expanded and fulfilled. More yoga results in a better world. More people doing yoga results in more people staying present even in the face of difficult things.

Those of us who teach yoga have cultivated a craft and invested in it for years. So, like anyone offering a service, we deserve to be compensated. At the same time, making yoga accessible to everyone is one of my core values. The way I bring those two ends together is partially through this scholarship. The scholarship allows me to meet people where they are.

Meeting people where they are is another application of the principle of ahimsa, or non-violence. Financially, that scholarship fund allows me to meet people where they are. When someone comes to me for yoga (as in the physical practice of asana - yoga poses, breathing practices, and attention practices), I meet them where they are. We find ways of moving and inhabiting the postures that are good for their knees, back, shoulders, or whatever they come with as they are. By engaging in the practice, where they are (their baseline) changes, the practice changes with them.

Yoga changes the world, one breath at a time.