Kula and the Courage to Be the Change
Jackie Anderson is the founder of Kula Yoga Studios and an experienced yoga educator, teacher trainer, and retreat leader. With more than 20 years in the wellness industry, she uses yoga, mindfulness, and nervous system reset to help others facilitate change and tap into their higher self.
Kula is often translated as community, family or a gathering of people connected by a shared purpose. To me, it means even more. Kula is the understanding that none of us heals, grows or awakens entirely alone. We become who we are in relationship with one another. That is why the motto of Kula Yoga is Be the Change. It is not simply a phrase for a shirt, a wall or a social media post. It is a responsibility. The change we want in our families, our communities and our world has to begin within us.
The mirror comes first
It is easy to identify what everyone else needs to change. We see another person's ego, defensiveness, selfishness or lack of awareness clearly. We can spend years waiting for someone else to apologize, grow or understand us. But yoga keeps turning the mirror back toward the self.
The mirror is not punishment. It is power. If the problem is always outside of us, then we are helpless. The moment we become willing to see our own patterns, we regain the ability to participate in change.
Looking in the mirror means asking difficult questions. Where am I contributing to the division I say I want to heal? Where am I demanding grace while withholding it from someone else? Where am I repeating a story because it protects me from responsibility? What am I unwilling to see because seeing it would require me to change?
Removing the story
Near the end of Chapter 9 in Revolution of the Soul, Seane Corn expands a teaching she received as a young woman into a spiritual progression: move beyond the story and see the soul; see the soul and recognize yourself; know yourself and come to know God; know God and become love; and through love, find liberation.
That teaching has stayed with me because our stories are powerful. They help us make meaning of our lives, but they can also become walls.
We create stories about who is right and who is wrong, who belongs and who does not, who hurt us and why we are justified in staying guarded. Some of those stories hold real pain and should never be dismissed. Seeing the soul does not mean excusing abuse, ignoring injustice or abandoning boundaries. It means refusing to reduce a human being, including ourselves, to the worst thing they have done or the narrowest story we can tell about them.
When we loosen our grip on the story, we make room to see the soul. When we see the soul in another person, we may recognize something of ourselves: the same fear, longing, tenderness and desire to be loved. That recognition does not erase accountability. It allows accountability to exist without dehumanization.
Community is a practice
A true kula is not a group of people who always agree. It is not a space without discomfort, conflict or mistakes. Community becomes meaningful when people are willing to remain present, tell the truth, listen, repair and grow.
We often speak about holding space for others. Sometimes holding space looks soft and quiet. Sometimes it looks like an honest conversation. Sometimes it means setting a boundary. Sometimes it means admitting that our impact did not match our intention. Love is not always agreement, and compassion is not the absence of accountability.
Kula asks us to resist the idea that personal transformation is only personal. Every pattern we heal changes the way we parent, partner, teach, lead and serve. Every time we interrupt a harmful reaction, we create a different experience for the person in front of us. Inner work moves outward.
Be the change is the essence of yoga
Yoga is union, but union begins with integration. We cannot create peace around us while refusing to meet the conflict within us. We cannot ask the world to be more compassionate while speaking to ourselves with cruelty. We cannot demand honesty from others while protecting our own illusions.
To be the change is to stop waiting for a perfect leader, teacher, partner or circumstance. It is choosing to embody what we say we value, especially when it is inconvenient. If we want more kindness, we practice kindness. If we want truth, we become more truthful. If we want forgiveness, we examine where we are still withholding it. If we want unity, we notice the ways we continue to create separation.
This does not happen once. The ego returns. Old wounds get activated. We become reactive, defensive or afraid. The practice is not about never losing our center. The practice is recognizing when we have left it and finding our way back with greater awareness.
Love is the way through
When we remove the layers of story, we begin to see the soul. When we see the soul, we recognize ourselves in one another. For me, this is where we begin to understand God, not as something distant, but as the living presence that connects us. To know that presence is to become more capable of love.
Love does not make us passive. It makes us responsible. Love asks us to speak, act, serve and repair. It asks us to remain human while remembering the humanity of others. Love is not the reward at the end of the practice. Love is the practice.
This is Kula. This is Be the Change. We look in the mirror, not because everything is our fault, but because our own consciousness is where our power begins. We do the work within ourselves, and then we bring that work into the room, the family, the community and the world.
The change begins with us. It always has.
Read more from Jackie Anderson
Jackie Anderson, Yoga Teacher, Healer & Studio Owner
Jackie Anderson has more than 20 years in the wellness industry. She leads yoga teacher training programs ranging from 200 to 300 hours and worldwide retreats, while also running and teaching at three yoga studios she founded in 2011. Jackie's main mission is teaching others the foundations and principles of yoga to help them catapult into the best version of themselves. She's authentic, honest, and walks life with laughter, grace, and love.
Source note:
This passage paraphrases Seane Corn's teaching at the end of Chapter 9 in Revolution of the Soul.
