What is Community Worth? | A Response

Image | Shaan R Ali

I recently received an enquiry about what community means, and the role of monetary contribution in joining a community. It’s always been valuable for me to offer transparency and promote conversation around what is shared. Below is what I responded with.

As part of the Estuary Yoga flock or as part of any other collective group - what does community mean for you? Has this changed or shifted through the pandemic and its many life-changing adaptations? What do you find most significant in your experience of our practice together?

Expressing ideas explicitly is often the most direct and useful way of becoming more aware of your experience. Feel free to comment below, or share your thoughts lucy@estuaryyoga.com.au. Would love to hear from you!

~ Lucy L.
founder/director

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WHAT IS COMMUNITY, AND WHAT IS IT WORTH?

Community is a word which gets thrown around a lot these days.

Just like words such as 'natural', 'feminism', 'sustainability' have been used in contexts which blurs the scope of what meaning is actually intended. It's something I have been contemplating lately, so I appreciate the opportunity to explore this.

To me, community begins with sharing something in common. In a more experiential sense, it is a gathering together of heart-minds who hold the intention of mutual support, and collective growing - or even thriving - while being connected through the common thread. In the case of Estuary Yoga Space, the yoga practice is that golden thread. This is both a joy and a challenge: yoga is not about the postures, but the dedication to practising how we wish to live, and living what we practice. If attended to consistently, the principles and teachings of yoga inevitably seep into our lives. Because of this integration, the impact of communing together reaches far beyond what happens on our mats.

As neighbours, as new acquaintances, as vastly different people walking different lives, the common path of yoga is like a form of gravity which holds us together. Yes, in our modern form of studio practice there is a transaction of monetary payment - yet this does not imply the encounter is purely transactional. Since we opened in 2017, the feedback I have consistently received through Estuary yogis has been not just about the practice on the mat which they value deeply, but also the sense of feeling welcome, supported, and safe to learn and grow in their own way. This is in large part facilitated by the teachers, but just as significantly by everyone else sharing space together. The word 'Space' is important in Estuary Yoga Space: it is our reception area, and the space of time before / after classes which provide containers for interactions, conversations, the cultivating of seemingly mundane yet often extraordinary connections. These contributions towards one another are not monetary, but they do take the currency of presence, attention, and kindness. I believe the yoga practice can make us better at inhabiting all of these qualities. And they are irreplaceable.

So do you have to pay to be part of a community? Maybe. In a world where we do function as a business, with rent to pay and teachers to support and bills to attend to, financial sustainability is integral. I believe however, that community means a sense of reciprocity which extends far beyond a dollar value. We practice yoga together, and in many ways, we practice life together. Like with most things worth doing, the deepest impact comes not just from what you invest, or what you do, but how the doing of it transforms your perspective, your imagination, and thus your life. Perhaps such transformations are best shared to remember we are together, not alone.

I'm curious to know, how do you understand community?

~*~