Tags
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today I’m teaching a Partner Yoga class to my students at OU-L, and anyone they choose to bring with them. I’ve done this as the last class for several semesters and it is always a lot of fun. Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to hold such a class!
“In every partnership you will find complimentary aspects of balance, flexibility, strength, and greatness, while revealing the qualities that create communication, trust, intimacy and union. The character of your practice will emerge from the nature of your relationship and the focus you share. Love and intimacy take many forms, all potent, all beautiful–the warm inner fire of open-hearted energy. Partner yoga has evolved from a broad spectrum of shared experiences. Every encounter, hilarious or holy, awkward or divine, is a precious exchange, a constant reminder of what is real.”
From The Joy of Partner Yoga, by Mishabae
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is an energy, a strong force of energy. (Think of a mother’s love for her child.) And a lack of love brings forth lower forms of energy like anxiety, fear, sadness, hate. Love nourishes your body, mind and soul, while negative energies invite ill health and dis-ease. Which way would you rather live?
Love is also what you ARE, at your core. Do you believe that? But in our finite, limited physical existence, love is something we must DO. So simple, yet so complex. Ponder that this Valentine’s Day.
- As you cultivate awareness and acceptance on the mat, how can you cultivate the same in your relationships with others?
- How can you move away from “me mode” and into “we mode” in an effort to nurture (or grow) the love you have for one another?
- How often does your ego get in the way of truly loving another person and how can you let some of that go in order to love fully?
- Is it humanly possible to love the way it tells us to in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8?
AS A BONUS, this discussion is worth 2 points! Happy Happy!
I sometimes find it hard to love others and let other love me, besides my family of course. I have trouble opening up to people, a lot of people say that I come off mean and/or look mean but I don’t try to and I don’t notice it, I just don’t walk around smiling all the time. I would love and hope that some day I do love like it say in corinthians 13:4-8
For me it is extremely hard for me to love someone or let someone love me. I know it’s not healthy that I push people away, but I seem to do it anyway. I believe it because I am a product of my up bringing. I believe in true love, and I could only hope to fall in love and experience what Corinthians 13:4-13:8 describes.
i think it is possible to do these things: cultivate awareness and acceptance in relationships, move into the “we mode”, and let go of our own egos to love in the right way if you love the way Corinthians 13:4- 13:8 tells you to love. However, the bible says that in order to love someone in this way we must offer up our entire being and all our bad qualities that hinder us from loving this way and then we may allow god to help us love by giving him room to love through us. This is a concept that I have always found a little hard to wrap my head around, how can I be doing the loving if its really God loving through me? Lately though, I am seeing the necessity in my own life because I realize that I need a lot more biblical love present in my relationships than the kind that I can give on my own.
I think it is surely possible to live by Corinthians 13:4-8. It may seem difficult (with varying degrees to many), but possible. Our society is very influential in terms of people being about themselves. We often lose sight of the importance of relationships and more importantly, love. Technology and new and rising trends tend to make most individuals more materialistic, and we forget to focus on the fundamentals of life. We must remember that a relationship consists of two people, thus we must diminish the presence of our “me mode”. A relationship is two sided, with two sets of needs, wants, and feelings. People naturally love things and other people, but more importantly people also need to be loved. That’s an important thought to remember because if we only ever love ourselves there will be no one to love us back! We’d all just be walking around loving ourselves and lose the opportunity to love others who also have plenty to give in this world.
I am so loving all of these comments. Extremely insightful! Beautiful.
I tend to be better at accepting others before I accept myself. I always see something in me that can be changed or fixed. When it comes to relationships, I try to be aware of what is happening, however, sometimes I ignore the bad and only look for the good, hurting myself in the end. I enjoy my relationships with people. Being able to do things together, a joint effort. Doing things as a team allows us to grow as individuals and as a team. I often refuse to let myself truly love someone else. I am not sure that it is my ego, but more something of self protection. I have to learn how to trust the other person fully with my feelings. I hope to love like 1 Corinthians tells us to. To find someone that I am able to love like that.
We can cultivate acceptance on the mat by not judging others or laughing at what they are not capable of. In the same manner, we can move towards “we mode” by not focussing on what we can or can’t do separately, but what we can accomplish together. This will strengthen your trust and communication with each other. Egos can get in the way if you are constantly trying to be better or equal to your partner in every aspect rather than being supportive and enduring. I do not believe it is possible to love like 1 Corinthians, but maybe with enough love and communication, it can be achieved.
I think acceptance can mean more than just with your partner alone but acceptance of those around us despite their flaws. I agree with Alisa in I dont think the love from 1 Corinthians can be achieved either. Everyone is different in their own unique way and we should celebrate our differences instead of view them as negatives. Because our differences are what makes us who we are as people.