Mutual Aid Mondays with PYP
Since the beginning of the year, The Portland Yoga Project has highlighted the incredible work of local non-profits as a way of furthering embodying our mission of inclusivity, service, and social awareness that we feel is at the heart of yoga. So far, we have featured Wabanaki Reach, Presente! Maine, and Nibezun-groups that provide services to celebrate the vibrant history and culture of historically underserved communities and provide both volunteer and educational opportunities for the greater Maine community. It has been a pleasure to be able to highlight such important work, and to introduce our community to the programming of these organizations. We want to offer the people who are so supportive of what we do at The Portland Yoga Project opportunities to participate in mutual aid.
So what exactly is Mutual Aid?
Mutual aid is a strategy for community care that deepens and broadens what is achieved by charity. When we engage in mutual aid, we do so in service to the idea that we are all connected. Whatever we give to others ultimately serves the collective prosperity of us all. The mutuality understands that our health is all connected, our safety is all connected, our freedom is all connected. As long as any person in our community is at risk, we are all at risk. Mutual aid depends on compassion, clarity of purpose, and curiosity about our own positionality in this world and the positionality of others.
Mutual aid is a way of caring for those around us, not because it is the moral or “right” thing to do, but because we embody the innate understanding of each other’s value. Mutual aid calls us to distinguish between the desire to swoop in and fix things, or assume what help means to others. It encourages us to ask what kind of support is right for whoever you are in relationship to, and creates self sufficiency, and self determination.
This isn’t to say charity is always harmful. But reinforcing hierarchies of care can contribute to the myth of separation, fostering an idea that there are certain people who NEED help that are separate from those who can provide it. Themes of scarcity and isolation can be reinforced.
The difference between mutual aid and charity is similar to the difference between responding and reacting, which I believe is one of the most fundamental practices of yoga. When we respond to a challenge, we approach it from a place of equanimity, clarity, compassion, and curiosity. Conversely, reactivity tends to be born of dysregulation, fear, protectionism, and scarcity. When I react to something that challenges me, I can be tempted to push it away, keep it over there, or rush to fix what feels uncomfortable or threatening. When I respond to something that challenges me, I become curious about the feelings of discomfort and threat and lean in to what the moment might reveal about my own assumptions and uncertainties. I can approach the challenge as a teacher rather than a threat. Instead of pitting myself against the challenge, I collaborate with it to create new connections of wisdom and meaning and relationship.
Our responsiveness and mutuality highlights how we are bound to everyone and everything that lives and breathes on this earth and beyond. And if we think about our yoga practice as a yoke that connects all things, mutual aid is an instrumental part to building those bridges.
Make sure to follow us on instagram for this opportunity to learn and engage.
