“The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air, but simply walking on this earth” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Full of Hot Air!

Hey guys, did you see me? Did you see me on the telly? 😛 If you did, maybe you could tell I was enjoying myself far too much teaching that lot to pass wind with yoga! With more fun than I’d initially bargained for continuing beyond the bank holiday, the experience was fitting given the ‘Playtime’ themed blog I sent out last week.

Thank you to everyone who sent me such sweet messages saying I did well - I’ve never received so many pictures of people’s TVs and computers! I wasn’t nervous, funnily enough - it must be all that yoga activating my relaxation response extremely effectively haha.

On a serious note, however, the program’s focus on our bowels got me thinking on the train ride home from the studio. About what we carry around with us in our human container every day - our bowels, blood, brains, muscles, sinew, nerves - just how amazing the body is. Even the bits of us considered somewhat gross, be it flatus, fluid or faeces, are endlessly astonishing and fascinating.

In the program, I was given thirty seconds to explain the stress and relaxation response concerning the gut. I felt slightly hard done by, only to be able to describe a tiny part of the intricate mechanisms that operate within the body, working tirelessly to keep us alive and functioning seamlessly without conscious effort - flexible, intelligent, and responsive.

We Are Nature

Have you had a chance to watch David Attenborough’s Wild Isles, a captivating series showcasing the amazing wildlife of the UK? A stunning presentation of nature in all its beauty and brutality, right under our noses. The program is perhaps partly intended to remind us how we take the wonders of the wildlife around us for granted.

Many of us delight in nature and feel better in its surroundings. When observing or enjoying it, we might experience the natural world as ‘other’ or separate from us. It’s so easy to forget that we, too, are miracles of nature. The fact we were even born and exist in our unique forms is an utter miracle, a massive improbability. That we move our limbs, breathe air, digest food or have a thought is quite unbelievable if you think about it. Not to mention how we as a species can work together, build ideas, technologies and civilisations, and save and destroy one another.

Your Body is a Temple

With this, I believe that your body, our bodies are temples to be worshipped. To be revered as much as the sun, moon or stars. Every cell, muscle and membrane, every artery, tissue and chemical connects one part to another in an exquisite symphony.

You ARE the miracle that you take for granted every day.

In us, war and peace exist, factories of balanced anabolism (building) and catabolism (breaking down), and connections too infinite to measure. Tantric yoga texts describe these processes of creation and destruction and cycles of life and death within us as a reflection of the Universe itself, and as such, we are microcosms of the macrocosm. We carry the Universe within us; in essence, we are the Universe.

The Divine in Me

With these philosophical concepts in mind and an acknowledgement of the miracle that you are, it can be difficult to believe there isn’t some Divinity shot through this whole crazy chaos that is being alive. It certainly makes me feel entirely small and immense at the same time. It helps me appreciate that when I nurture my relationship with the body, I connect with nature and all that is miraculous and divine.

In recognising the natural world around me and within me, I’m reminded of a beautiful interpretation of the greeting, Namaste: “The Divine Light in Me honours the Divine Light in You.” And with that, we are one with ourselves, nature and each other.

(How did we get from farting on TV to the Infinite Oneness of Being in one train of thought? Who knows?!!)

Let’s practise.