The goal of Yoga is Unity. This is a challenge at the best of times, but, as I’m sure many of us can relate, it’s even more challenging when you exist between two worlds.

I’m a first-generation Filipino-American born in the United States. My family, my home life, has always been Filipino. My school, my friends, my environment outside of the home, has always been American.

The challenge of honoring Filipino traditions at home, while fitting in with the American lifestyle, was both internal and external. I struggled with two parts of myself. At home, I respected our strict Filipino traditions and values, while best explaining the American differences to my parents. Outside, I explained the Filipino differences to my friends, my teachers, my colleagues, while still hoping that I would be accepted for my different culture.

I was never just ME. I was never simply a unique blend of worlds, with unique experiences and perspectives. I was always something halved, something Other, something both incomplete and yet too much, all at once.

But Yoga says otherwise. There is no internal fight, internal struggle when we practice Yoga—there is only Integration within ourselves.

In Yoga, we are working towards being Whole, by seeing and accepting everything that makes us who we are, and knowing that all of it, all of our being is sacred. Every element of us—our heritage, our lived experience, and our future—is part of Us, part of a whole, and part of the Universe.

We are each one beautiful, whole world, within a Universe of beautiful, whole worlds.

Below are some recommended practices with Jenny

https://www.innerdimensiontv.com/programs/root-to-rise-from-the-ground-up/

https://www.innerdimensiontv.com/classes/bindless-bird-of-paradise/

https://www.innerdimensiontv.com/classes/gentle-meditation/

https://www.innerdimensiontv.com/classes/vinyasa-yin/

By Jenny