Heading home, my daughter shared how yoga helped her to feel "in her body;" something she struggles with. I completely understand. I often feel like I have to really work to be grounded. Like my daughter, I naturally exist in what I like to think of as the etheric plane... a dreamy place where innovative ideas, images, and words play and morph.
She then explained how she often felt bad about herself because others have labeled her as "lazy." Here I was reminded of the yoga class we had just left.
Two physical focuses of yoga are strength and flexibility*. Both are needed to fully actuate any pose, but rarely do individuals naturally possess both. Instead, the aim is to work towards the perfect pose in each moment. Some people are inherently more flexible, and so have to work on strength (like me); others are stronger, so for them becoming more flexible is the challenge.
In the class we had just left, the teacher was emphasizing being observant of where our bodies were in the moment, without judgment.
Neither strength, nor flexibility is inherently more valuable. Similarly, neither dreamers, nor doers are more valuable. In order to fully live, we need both. The doer without the dream becomes a frenetic automaton, checking off lists without taking in the snowflake wind. The dreamer without action grows the moss of stagnancy and depression, never actuating his or her brilliance.
Like the insightful yoga instructor directed us to perceive our practice in the moment without judgment, we can benefit by learning to perceive our entire existence without judgment, one moment at a time.
While the dreamer may be diminished in a world that revers movers and shakers, we must not forget that the dreamer is fraught with visions that will heal the world when actualized.
And just as doers need to work on matching their activity with equal parts dreaming, the dreamer must ground and push into action, strengthening their bond to the earth in order to manifest the new world we all long for.
The dreamer is far from lazy. The activities that takes place in the etheric realms dreamers access are vibrant, dynamic, and just as exhausting as moving one's body in the world. Do not underestimate the dreamers. They are the architects of an emerging consciousness.
*I, in no way mean to simplify yoga. I understand that yoga has many components, but for the sake of this post I am focusing on these two aspects.
"The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do." ~Sarah Ban Breathnach
"We are all dreamers creating the next world, the next beautiful world for ourselves and for our children." ~Yoko Ono
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