A few months ago, I stepped into a space that feels healing, honest, and alive.
I was recovering, through natural health of course, from a stubborn cold. I felt called to move. Gently. Without expectation. To tune myself closer to The Source.
I laid down my mat beneath the trees, surrounded by sunlight, birdsong, and the slow rhythm of a place not knowing the frantic pace of life.
The ground was soft. The light gentle. The breeze speaking.
Nature was having a conversation I feel blessed to hear
I was there not to stretch or sweat, but to remember…
Not to demonstrate, but to feel, to remember my purpose.
And one word moved through me endlessly: peace…
It wasn’t a slogan or a luxury. It was a need. A medicine. A demand.
A whisper from somewhere deeper. A message as old and now as time itself.
I shared that word I heard and felt with a few close friends, knowing the experience chose me for a reason. Knowing your purpose is a great gift.
As an activist, I feel the pain that deserves my humanity and my solidarity
As a lawyer, I challenge systems that dilute, ignore, threaten truth and freedom
As a journalist, I co-create spaces for people to share our stories, tell our truths
As an artist, I turn to movement, beauty and poetry when language isn’t enough
This short video, filmed while I was lost and found in that garden, wasn’t a performance.
It unfolded like a prayer, like a painting, like art. I am grateful to the soul who captured it.
Each gesture held something sacred. Grief. Grace. Hope. Grounding. Clarity. And Power.
As I came across this video a few times since then, I felt I need to share it today, World Yoga Day. With authenticity. Without an agenda. With love.
As I moved, I thought of the children. Our children…
I thought of the children in Gaza, still under or over the rubble of their dreams. The largest number of child amputees implies that, per capita, the number of child amputees in Gaza is likely the highest in the world. Gaza’s population is only about 2.2 million, over half of whom are children—making the amputation rate unprecedented for a region of its size.
I thought of the girls in the Congo, holding stories too heavy for their years. Congo's copper and cobalt industries, which are notorious for the use of child labor and other human rights abuses. And of course the blood diamonds used to finance genocide. I hope we are not using diamonds. I hope your phone is not tainted by the misery of the 35,000 children in Congo's mines.
I thought of the trauma people are asked to numb themselves to. We will not.
This yoga is not escape. It is witnessing. It is remembrance. It is sacred fire.
It is an offering of peace to those who are denied it, and a reclaiming of it within ourselves. So we can rise stronger, wiser, and unshaken.
I offer it to you as a moving artwork. A ritual of resonance.
Another moment of solidarity with every soul crying out for peace.
May it meet you where you are and where you can be this World Yoga Day.
The 11th International Yoga Day is being celebrated across the world.
Yoga has done so much for me as someone who was harmed by Big Pharma.
As someone with a very busy and very fulfilling life of transformation.
I can move in ways I didn’t think was possible. I believe you can too.
Will you join me in rising, for peace, for justice, for our world, for humanity?
In truth, in compassion, in solidarity
Shabnam Palesa Mohamed
Our tribe of women warriors passionate about love, peace and solidarity
Resources:
If you want to give meaningful gifts, please consider yoga or art classes. More gift ideas here @WCH
If detox and wellbeing are important part of your life, check our this WCH study and these health guides
If you genuinely like to challenge your perspectives, here’s an article you may find interesting: “the Times is doing what it often does: hold up to ridicule any non-Western, non-rationalistic, non-neurotic spiritual practice. A whiff of eurocentrism here, a dash of condescension there, coupled with a handful of pseudo-scientific evidence, and—presto!—yoga is ridiculous.”
Share this post