The myth of independence

In yoga asana practice we often talk about moving one part of the body independently of another: lift your leg, but keep your hip still; rotate your palms down, but keep the shoulders still.

As a cue, it works.

We are invited to focus on mobilizing or stabilizing a part of the body we don’t usually pay that much attention to.

But as a reflection of reality, it is deeply inaccurate.

What can you think of that is truly independent? I honestly cannot come up with a single thing, person, or concept that doesn’t depend on someone or something else. We are all relative, interdependent, both internally and externally.

To me, this is mostly a comfort.

At the individual level, it means that I don’t have to — or rather, I truly cannot — think of my mind, my body, and my soul, as separate. What harms one, harms the others. What helps one, helps the others too. If on some days I cannot find the inner calm to drop into breath and stay present during practice, at least I moved. My body will benefit and this directly benefits my mind and soul whether I feel the benefit immediately or not. This is so good to know.

This is no different at the community level. The only difference is that we are more likely to do harm to others, not realizing we are directly harming ourselves. This insane heat? We did that. Inflation? Also us. Active trauma response that translates into violence? Yup, us too.

Knowing that we are interdependent doesn’t take away from individual responsibility on climate justice, economic equality, and structural equity. Much to the contrary: it underpins it. I am responsible for my part of our work to be better together. So are you.

Happy Interdependence Day.