Supportful: We stand for ourselves so we can stand for each other

I realized early on in my teaching career what a privilege it is to hold space for people who want to empower themselves. Like most who teach yoga, I came to it because I experienced transformation through my own practice. I went from being someone who placed value in herself using outside sources, to someone who could stand on her own two feet and acknowledge that real, lasting value and self-worth comes from within. Upon making this self-discovery, all I wanted to do was share the practice of yoga with as many people as possible, and for the last decade I have had the great honor of doing so.

Recently I asked myself the question, “what’s next?” After we have learned how to help ourselves, or at the very least cultivated the tools to do so, then what? As it tends to do, the universe provided me with a very clear answer. I was approached by a friend of mine, who after following my work with yoga and essential oils, wanted to see if I would be interested in adding another avenue of advocacy. Enter a beautiful new company called Supportful. This is a space where the mission is to cultivate and hold space for people to help other people. We look at the question of “How Can I Help?” and offer practical, impactful and actionable ways to do so. Unlike existing crowdfunding sites that only provide fundraising, Supportful aims to focus on the entire support experience. This includes volunteering, meal-sending, storytelling and group communication to provide all of the ever-changing, practical things people actually need when facing the human experience surrounding hardship.

When I was in the very beginning stages of working with Supportful, I woke up one morning with a favorite quote of mine ringing in my ears: “As we get older, we discover that we have two hands at the end of our arms. One is for helping ourselves and the other for helping others.” I realized immediately that this was the answer to my question of “what next?” We must learn to stand strong in who we are so that we can stand for others when they aren’t able. We do the work on our mat to learn how to best support ourselves, so that we can fully support those around us, doing it all with our own two hands.