by Juan Villegas, E-RYT® 500
When I Travel I Feel More Connected
In 2015 I began traveling to teach Yoga Teacher Trainings around the world. Every so often I used to leave my home for a few months to teach yoga students who wanted to become teachers, that gig lasted about 5 years, until COVID-19 happened. I love to travel and when I travel I feel that all my worries disappear, I feel at home! Throughout my life I have lived in different cities in Colombia, Denmark and Canada and I feel that the more one travels and sees the world the more one feels part of a collective, the collective that lives on earth. I grew up in Medellin, Colombia and I consider that city my first home, then I lived in Kolding (Denmark) and several places throughout Canada like Vancouver, the Okanagan, Vancouver Island and Toronto.
As a child I remember that the world felt so big and I never thought that by the age of 30 I was going to see so much of it. When I travel I get to reconnect with old friends and people that I consider my ‘extended family’ and that I love dearly, they make me feel at home, and on the other hand, every time I get back to my place and see my partner and my dog, that also feels like home. So, where is actually home? perhaps the earth itself is more of a ‘home’ rather than specific cities or countries.
When it was discovered that liquid water flows on the surface of Mars, it made me realized the possibilities of life outside of our planet. If there is life outside Earth and if the universe is actually infinite, we need to truly become one as a planet to face what the future brings. This is when our yoga practice comes into place, this is when our sense of unity gets tested. I believe that our cultural differences can and will disappear, our sense of loneliness or that feeling that some of us don’t belong will also vanish. In the future when we are asked where we are from or where is our home, we will say that we are from Earth.
The word ‘yoga’ translates ‘yoke’ or ‘union’ so I see the yoga system as a preparation for us earthlings to get together and be able to see our planet as our home. Once that happens, it will be the beginning of a transforming time for all of us.
Is there a place you call ‘home’?
AnyBody Movement 