When I Was 17

When I was 17, for Chritsmas, I received a bike and a tape of U2’s Joshua Tree album. On it, was the song I was obsessed with at that time, “Where the streets have no name”. So without a helmet and in mid freezing temperatures, I got on my new bike, and began cycling around my 200 year old, quaint hometown in Ontario, listening to this song blaring.

For me, this has always reflected what Christmas was: being with family, getting what I wanted and a feeling of safety.

Over The Years

Over the years, obviously, as an adult, this perspective has changed! So regardless if you live in Victoria, Vancouver, or Hamilton, we begin to view family and friends differently, as we hopefully grow in life (which we get with yoga or yoga training) and times like Christmas begin to be simply just a holiday, which reflects shopping and the giving of materialistic things.

As A Yogi

As a yoga professional now, obviously my perspective is different and it’s that difference, which I believe gives me a better perspective of what Christmas is really about.

There are many holidays through the world – and so Christmas is just one of many. It fits well within the Capitalist system within the world of Maya (the world of illusion). The image of how Christmas looks, how people act and what people give. It’s one more thing that Capitalism created, to sustain itself and in turn is just another layer of imprisonment for the people who live within the system.

Capitalism

Yoga, for those who practice it, know it is something that can help you to see the connections between capitalism and unhappiness.

And it’s also with yoga that one can begin to actually feel – at your deepest level – how we are all connected: we ‘our are brothers keepers’ (we are responsible for each other) and ‘there, but the grace of God go I’ (it could be you in that unfortunate situation).

Summary

With yoga, we awaken and our freedom begins, when we want to serve others.  Not just at Christmas time, it’s when we want to make the lives better of those who are less fortunate anywhere, not those just living on the street, but those in their lives that we should love and care about!

When we decide to do that – which we can only garner through a steady practice of yoga – we will begin to feel truly what Christmas asserts its about – but truly never  sustains and delivers!