Hello, I’m
Daniel Sannito (they/them)

Life is constantly in motion. Quite literally we are moving at roughly 1,000 mph as we spin through the universe. When we zoom in even closer we see that our individual lives are always in flux, moving from task to task, thought to thought, emotion to emotion. The range of what we experience each day is expansive. Upon zooming in further we see, on an even subtler level, that even our cells are in constant transformation. Broadly speaking, our cells reproduce entirely every 7 to 10 years.

Si algo aprendemos a lo largo de nuestra vida es que somos seres adaptables, capaces de cambiar en cualquier momento. A medida que navegamos por las muchas transiciones que la vida tiene para ofrecernos, se desafía nuestra capacidad de ser flexibles y movernos con, en lugar de en contra. Aunque a veces puede ser incómodo, todos tenemos la capacidad para este tipo de cambios.

The world we live in requires, almost demands, a lot of us. Our time and energy, our hearts, minds, and bodies, are all given certain expectations, limitations, and confines to operate within. The demands of the external world can leave us distant and disconnected from the parts of ourselves that are able to choose; to choose how we spend our time, where our energy goes, and choose all the ways we serve our hearts, minds, and bodies in the best ways possible. When we’re being pulled in so many directions all at once focusing on the cultivation of resilience can be challenging; ironically, this exact challenge is what helps to strengthen our resilience.

De todos los entornos que exploramos semanalmente, quizás nos presentemos en nuestros espacios de trabajo con mayor frecuencia. Esa podría ser una oficina en el hogar, ya que el cambio a espacios de trabajo virtuales ha sido abundante en los últimos años, o podría estar volviendo a una oficina o un entorno en persona. Cualquiera que sea el aspecto de nuestro espacio de trabajo, a menudo, cuando llegamos allí, se asume que lo único que podemos hacer es nuestra función laboral. Lo que significa que el cuidado personal queda en un segundo plano a medida que priorizamos nuestra producción.

Out of all the environments we explore on a weekly basis, we show up to our workspaces perhaps most frequently. That might be a home office as the shift to virtual workspaces has been abundant in the past few years, or you might be transitioning back to an office or in-person setting. Whatever your workspace looks like, often when you arrive there it’s assumed that the only thing we can do is our work function. Which means that self-care sits on the back burner as we prioritize our production.

The five koshas are the pathway to the deepest layers of ourselves. When we embark upon any journey to and through ourselves, we are taking a journey through these layers of existence. Each of these layers is seen as a veil that has been created for us to develop deeper understanding, to examine, and ultimately to transcend as we find our way back to our truest Self.

For nearly three years we have endured levels of stress, uncertainty, and fear in unprecedented amounts. We quickly became familiar with mask mandates, sheltering in place, social distancing, and a new virtual life. As we’ve familiarized ourselves with these new terms that shape the way we live, we’ve settled into entirely new ways of being.

Finding balance often equates to holding two things next to each other and trying to bring them into an equilibrium of sorts. When we try to conjure up a visual representation of what balance means, likely the first thing to come to mind is a scale or some variation of linear representation with two opposing sides. The balance, of course, would be when each endpoint, or side of the scale, is in line with the other.

Coming to my mat has always been a space to surrender, a space where I take time to connect with myself. It was on my mat that I first learned what it felt like to embody gratitude as a way of being rather than an external expression. So frequently gratitude is expressed outward, where we thank those around us or recall the things we feel blessed to be surrounded by. External practice is a deeply valuable and important mode of the expression of gratitude, and a practice of gratitude can be so much more.

As humans, we have an innate desire to connect and to belong. We aren’t designed to carry everything we experience alone. We’re built to be in community, to support and uplift one another. Somewhere along the lines, it became glorified to do everything alone. We’ve been taught that asking for support is a sign of weakness and that when we operate with the least amount of support possible we are stronger or more capable. This trickles into every facet of our world and starts to affect the ways we care for ourselves and our communities.