Making Space for Yoga in a Virtual World

“Learning the practice of yoga has been the best thing I've done for myself during this virtual time” - Gillian Ebersole (Photo of Kat Reese)

Post Author: Gillian Ebersole, Lila Flow Graduate 2020

The world shrank in early March. With the rapid acceleration of the pandemic, the deceleration of everything else seemed to follow. Suddenly, as the need for social distancing and mask-wearing compromised communal spaces including yoga studios, gyms, libraries, theaters, and museums, creators pushed all their content online.

Since then, I've spent almost six months dancing, doing Pilates, and taking yoga classes in my bedroom. I graduated with a degree in dance from my bedroom. For me, this rapid switch to the virtual world has challenged me to re-evaluate what I love most and how much I am willing to cling to the spaces of my former life.

When I first heard about doing a yoga training online, I thought it was a bad idea, or at least, an unsatisfying one. Instead, studying with Lila Flow Yoga kept me involved with many of my friends and classmates from college that also decided to do the training. Learning the practice of yoga has been the best thing I've done for myself during this virtual time. Curiously, Zoom became a studio space of sorts. I realized I still have community. I still feel the magic. I have something that makes me look forward to tomorrow, to next week, to next year.

In my many hours spent in my room, I often grow frustrated because I just do not have enough space. I have bruises from running into my furniture and carpet burns on my knees from trying to replicate floorwork from contemporary dance classes. With yoga, I do not feel that same frustration. It has become one activity I look forward to because it does not feel any different in my body. Sure, pre-pandemic yoga involved going to classes at the gym, but post-pandemic yoga has not fundamentally changed. All you need is a mat (and a few props).

Chinese American geographer Yi-Fu Tuan defines justice as the space to imagine. This idea of justice as a sense of spaciousness and a place for imagination is integral to the practice of yoga. We live in an unjust world, made plain by the protests for racial justice, the economic divisions that leave many people without the resources to survive, the threat of a virus in societies with limited access to healthcare.

It is difficult to imagine when our space shrinks. It is difficult to seek justice when we feel trapped.

Therein lies the power of yoga, which reminds us of the space we can create in our lives - whether it be the space in our bedrooms, in our bodies, or in our minds. The practice of yoga taught me there is always more space than I believe there to be. I can always find a bit more length in a deep twist or another moment of peace in meditation.

In an effort to provide space for more people to access yoga, Lila Flow launched an online yoga studio in late July. In part, the studio provides a space for their YTT graduates to teach during this virtual landscape. And, the affordable classes offer space for others to bring the practice of yoga into their homes, making space wherever it may be available.

If you’re interested in deepening your yoga practice, I invite you to join Lila Flow for their next online yoga teacher training in October. Here is the link to register!

It would be remiss of me to write about space and not recognize the space I take as a guest in the culture of yoga. I am constantly learning and growing in my awareness and knowledge, and I am excited about the vast space that is yoga. It feels endless, and that is such a treasure when I am still in my bedroom.

I hope to see you on the mat! Yoga has brought me so much joy, and I hope you will allow Lila Flow to share that spaciousness with you.

The original publication of this appears on Gillian Ebersole’s blog.