Why Bother With Community?

Just recently, I decided to return to the community of yoga teachers. I’ve missed the experience of teaching yoga and it was an exhilarating and encouraging experience to interview the other day for a position I’d once held, let go of and now hope to secure once again. 

      CommUnity

Being a part of a yoga teaching community means that I will get to hobnob with other teachers again. I’ll sub for their classes and they will sub for mine. We’ll exchange ideas, support one another with our knowledge, and seek one another’s company when we attend those required employee meetings. 

Belonging to a community of yoga teachers gives me a sense of belonging to a group.  Within this group, I will find like minded individuals who share common ideas and values. But also within this community, I will find philosophies and ideas that vary slightly from my own simply because no two people think and teach alike.  

But, no matter what type of community we belong to, whether it be a belly dancing community, a biker community or political one, each group is made up of particular, peculiar, and distinct individuals. People are similar, but not exactly the same. 

What we have in common is what draws us together and noticing the differences can sometimes make belonging to a community a bit of a struggle. But these differences do not need to polarize us or keep us from participating in the lives of others. Instead, appreciating and respecting the things that make others distinct promotes an amicable community. 

It has been said that human beings are relational by nature which means we are not meant to isolate and detach ourselves from each other. Sharing the things we have in common and respecting the things we don’t have in common make for better communities. 

Why bother with community? Within the word community is common unity. In isolation there is only a small “i”. We are not intended to do this life alone.