Six Types Of Love
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- Eros
- a passionate physical and emotional love based on aesthetic enjoyment; stereotype of romantic love
- Ludus
- a love that is played as a game or sport; conquest; may have multiple partners at once
- Storge
- an affectionate love that slowly develops from friendship, based on similarity
- Pragma
- love that is driven by the head, not the heart
- Mania
- obsessive love; experience great emotional highs and lows; very possessive and often jealous lovers
- Agape
- selfless altruistic love; spiritual
A lot of letting go. We hold so much emotion in the body. Practicing yoga is releasing. That’s why it’s so difficult! Not because we move in different ways or inhale to lift this and exhale to lower that. It’s scratching at the surface of what you don’t want to see. It’s unveiling all the fears and judgments you have about yourself buried deep inside. It’s connecting to what’s really true. And yes, along the way we might pick up some strength and flexibility and handstands and backbends and arm balances – this is a bonus. It’s not why we keep returning to the mat, every damn day. It’s not the purpose of this practice. As I move deeper and deeper into backbends, I move deeper and deeper into self-love. As I build strength to balance steadily on my hands, I build strength to face whatever the world throws at me. As I release tension from the hips, shoulders, hamstrings, I release fear, frustration, sadness. Little by little… I release the need to control.
As I learn to surrender on the mat, I learn to surrender to the present moment. This is the practice. It’s accessible to you, to everyone, right here, right now – but you have to do the work. No one is going to do it for you. Don’t hold back. Today is a beautiful day for a new beginning.
— Rachel Brathen
Focus on what you want, not what you’re trying to avoid
—Rachel Brathen
