Have you ever been called for a higher
purpose? Do you want to leave your mark on the world and really make
a change?
Practicing yoga for 8 years, I have
had a long road of self discovery which will never end. Being a mom,
wife, daughter, friend, business woman, and yoga teacher, I wear many
hats, and during my road of self discovery there was an inner voice
that said, “Think bigger”. Was it watching Wayne Dyer on PBS talking
about inspiration and making his words link to my life? Was it the many
books I read daily on self discovery, motivation, or empowerment? Was
it the paintings and art that I was drawn to do this last year? Maybe
all of them had an impact, but the bottom line is that I was drawn to
a cause.
I have studied Sean Corne’s style
for many years and have admired her community activism which is really
“sacred activism”. Sean, along with some other wonderful women,
formed an organization called Off the Mat Into the World (www.offthematintotheworld.org ) as a way to take your yoga practice into
your life. Their challenge was to have each person raise $20,000 for
this cause. Last year, 20 men/women met that challenge and ventured
to Cambodia to clean up their drinking water. Along with that, 20% of
the funds stayed here in the US to support at-risk youth yoga programs.
This is what I have been looking for.
I have searched for a way to take my yoga practice beyond my mat and
into a community, my family and the world. This year’s challenge is
to raise the same amount of money except for 3 organizations in Uganda.
The goal is to build an eco-friendly birthing center because so many
African women die during child birth, a school to support a huge community’s
educational efforts, and, finally, to support the Youth Aids project.
For more specific information, please find the information with these
websites: www.yogaandlife.com, www.sevachallenge.ning.com, www.artforseva.ning.com.
So, my journey now begins. Someone
once told me, “It’s not about the money that you raise, and the
causes are so important, but there is even more. It is about the person
that you become to raise that kind of money. It is the transformation,
sacrifice and chunking away your goal, little by little.”
She was right. I look forward to this
experience and hope to reach my goal. More importantly, I look forward
to the person that I am going to become to take this oath of sacred
activism. Please check out the above websites if you are interested
in joining me on my journey!
love & blessings…
Stacey
