by Marc M. Morozumi
Being amongst diverse communities, cultivating meaningful connections and reserving personal downtime, all feel like useful ingredients for living a rich life. Engage, then relax. Out and about, then in and quiet. “Effort and ease” students often hear me mention during a Hatha class. I’ve learned my introverted/introspective self needs quite a bit of downtime to reflect, process and let go.Insights for self-care that have lasted from the pandemic…
While I’m certainly grateful for all the ways I can be connected with these experiences, I also know from my ongoing connection to the genocide in Gaza and other crimes against humanity, that my full experience of being on this planet is also filled with great sadness and anguish. And I need time to process and reflect on that. Rather than feel like I need to only focus on the happy things, it’s sobering and grounding to stay aware of how our everyday actions may contribute or perpetuate the cycle of harm. How being disconnected from our full story of existence may actually be the silence in the background that allows things to normalize in the foreground. What ways do our cravings for privilege and convenience require harms to be sustained, all the while knowing it’s not sustainable?
I saw the news about the 21 protestors in the 98th annual Macy’s Day Parade today. I’m sure we all have different viewpoints on this based on our tolerance and interest in holding numerous points of view at once. What if a parade included a full section to honor our indigenous people? Not simply a land acknowledgement which only first took place in 2020, but a full section to help educate? What if the parade included a moment of silence for all the harms from past and present settler colonialism? What if we were to make it a practice that we understand the harm we sustain when not acknowledging the pain that has been caused? I am grateful Native American Heritage Day exists, but I wonder how many people know that, versus Black Friday?!
In the same way that I make a conscious choice to be vegan and not wear or purchase products made from animal skins, etc., I aim to be mindful of all actions with a goal of ahimsa, non-harming in Sanskrit. I see our actions being linked to one another, all cause and effect as an interconnected web. While I know there’s no way to avoid causing any harm, I do my best to add in as much positive energy as I can, one interaction at a time.
I am grateful for you and for your connection with Mukunda Studio. I hope you enjoy this holiday time. May we celebrate, honor and have highest gratitude for the land, creatures great and small, and all of humanity. May we make the choices that call us into present time versus cause us to linger in unconscious habit time. May we deepen our bonds with family and friends and trust there is a higher purpose that will reveal itself in the right time. May Truth guide us, Liberation unite us, and Peace settle us.
Marc M. Morozumi, E-RYT-500, CMT #73144Marc is a certified Integral Yoga Hatha, Raja yoga and stress management teacher with over 4000 teaching hours and a CMT in the state of California. His diverse career history, which has varied from a life in the arts to working in a high-paced event world, unifies in one voice today as a health and wellness entrepreneur.