Everything (if we look carefully) helps us: Grayson Perry and Yoga Sutra 1.12

A few years ago I was visiting the British Museum to see the Grayson Perry exhibition, The Unknown Craftsman, loving him pointing out, so clearly, the art that’s travelled from past time and now, and how we are all the same.

One of my favourite pieces was a sculpture of a tiny man and woman, weighed down with baggage, bent and struggling with the weight of it.

Both of them carrying experiences, individually placed upon their shoulders, even a glass container full of tears.

I’m watching my own children now parenting, struggling, all the joy and tears that comes with being a parent. And I watch them struggle to let go of one traumatic moment before another raises its head.

And I am so grateful for the teachings of our yoga practise, and the teaching of unattachment.

If we keep adding each moment, each experience on our shoulders, without putting them down, and letting go of them, in the end we will be weighed down by them.

A weight that keeps growing as time goes on, and that we keep adding to.

Will we be able to carry it all?

So I’m making sure that in the space between moments in life that are stressful, I allow that space, I don’t hold on to it and keep it filled, and I’m learning to always do that, so that I’m lighter.

I’m hoping that it travels to my children in their parenting and on to all things in life.

So thank you Y.S. 1.12 Abhyasa and Vairagya

And thank you Grayson Perry, a yoga teaching in a different shape than it usually comes, but equally as powerful.

About Gill Ansty

Gill has been a yoga teacher for many years, a wonderful artist and she recently became a YHET trustee.

She runs Canoe Yoga with her husband, and you can see more of her art here.