Isolation

The word isolation is pretty charged. On the one hand, and let's look at the negative first, we can jump to assumptions of loneliness, being separated from people that we love and the things we find comfort in. Isolation is often used as punishment, not only in prisons when inmates are naughty, but many of us might remember this being used at school too. Or maybe you don't. I suppose not everyone was made to miss playtime for bad behaviour, or thrown in detention - do they even have detention anymore?

The point is, isolation has some heavily negative connotations, and many of us might be triggered at the thought. Isolation can also make some feel vulnerable. Especially if we don't believe we have the ability to keep ourselves safe in a given situation. So when isolation is forced on us, it's a kind of violence. Yet when we select it, it's a freedom.

When isolation has an allure, it's the escape from troubles, from work, from stress. To be alone and able to think clearly. Away from being told what to do, where to be, and keep up with the demands put on us day by day. It can feel like in moments of isolation, we return to ourselves. The person we were before we had to do all this stuff. This stuff that busies us. All those responsibilities.

Yoga practice is often seen as a short retreat. While we might go to yoga in a room, with people, it's a practice of isolation. We're in our own space, in our own heads, focusing on our own bodies. We're paying attention to the external and the internal. We busy the brain with postures and movement, so that our mind can be still. A quote I like from the video I linked to below is, "stillness is where all the answers come from." So that we can calm the mind. Don't get me wrong, that's not the only thing going on here. Many of us come to the mat to increase mobility, to iron out the kinks, but that same space and smoothness is being made in the mind too.

I get it, being alone with your thoughts through practice can be a lot. It's one of the reasons I think music in class, the right music, is important. It gives you something to tune into in times where silence would be just too much.

Call it isolation, or just creating a bit of space for yourself. Cutting out a small slice of solace in the week can be game changing.