People gathered in North Long Beach on Sunday, Dec. 6, to practice a type of yoga few would recognize in the US. No one was stretching, and attendees relaxed on the grass eating cupcakes and charcuterie.
The small business vendors who participated in the pop up sale had agreed to donate a portion of their proceeds to Compassion Project, a new organization that aims to provide access to yoga and mental health care at low to no cost. This in itself is karma yoga, the act of doing good deeds and right actions.
Compassion Project was started by marriage and family therapist Cristina Aviles while completing her studies to becomes a yoga teacher. She sees mental health care and yoga as going hand in hand, and wants to eliminate any barriers that might keep people from being able to participate.
“I never want money or any kind of accessibility issues to get in the way for anyone,” Aviles told the Signal Tribune.
Indeed, money was never meant to be a barrier to the indigenous practice of the Indian subcontinent. And many expensive so-called yoga studios across the US are teaching nothing more than calisthenics. Fortunately, the program Aviles attended, Ra University, taught the origins of yoga and required its students to start projects that would benefit the community.
“So yoga literally in Sanskrit is ‘to yoke,’ — ‘to unite,’– and this is literally what I see right here, is this unity, this community together, and it requires that support to be able to just continue to grow that mission. Compassion to me is love, empathy, kindness, with not having to need a certain socioeconomic status to be able to access this,” Aviles said.
In a Western world that associates yoga with pricy spandex clothing and bored upper-middle class women getting in shape, hardly anyone remembers what yoga truly is. The stretches that many people think of as yoga are actually just different types of asana. Learning the asanas is literally referred to as the least important part of yoga in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a classic text written hundreds of years before Christ was born which outlines the eight limbs of yoga. Asana is the third limb, with the first two, yama and niyama, involving morals and ethics. Of the 195 sutras (similar to verses) in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, only three talk about asanas.
In the Bhagavad Gita, another ancient text, three different types of yoga are outlined, all of which can be practiced without any sort of stretching:
• Karma yoga- The Path of Action, doing good deeds and making morally right actions
• Bhakti yoga- The Path of Devotion, love of God
• Jnan yoga- The Path of Knowledge, learning new things
“We’re literally doing yoga right now,” Aviles said during the event. “There are eight limbs to yoga and that has been what has allowed me to bring all of this together because it’s like ‘oh, I’ve been doing yoga this whole time.’ It started with me with, yes, the asanas, the postures, and then opening that door to knowing that I’ve been doing it more and it’s in such alignment. Yoga is meditation, yoga is mindfulness. Yoga is joy, you know, encompassing different things that access joy in our lives. It’s connection. It’s community. It is not an escape. It is to help us be present, to move through the different pains that we will experience in this life.”
Many of Compassion Project’s volunteers are fellow graduates of Ra University that Aviles met during her studies, including yoga instructor Mari Aceves.
“Compassion Project is a really good representation of the yoga community, different people with different skills wanting to come forth and give to not only the community, but individuals and the collective during a time of need. But aside that, I think it’s a good example that yoga doesn’t have to be in a studio, doesn’t have to be in a particular place, that yoga can be anywhere with anybody. And as long as you’re taking time for your mental health and to learn a new coping skill, it’s going to be a benefit. So even if you’re not doing yoga with Compassion Project, do yoga for yourself,” Aceves said.
Vendors that donated a portion of their proceeds from the pop up sale to Compassion Project include plant seller Sophia Soul, charcuterie arrangers A&I Magical Boards, and Sugar from the Heart Bake Shop.
Compassion Project plans to host more events in the Long Beach and Los Angeles areas in the near future. To keep up with what they’re doing follow them on Instagram @_compassion_project_.