Balancing Act; an Exploration of our Identity

Last month we were fortunate enough to hold a photo shoot featuring our art-inspired yoga mat, Visionary, within the Ards Art Centre in Northern Ireland.

Sandra Robinson’s ‘Balancing Act’ exhibition was such a gorgeous display of sculptures, and tied in perfectly with the art of yoga. Balancing Act explores how we balance the various facets of our identity – our private and public, internal and external and individual or collective selves.

Sandra Robinson is interested in the strange balancing act we each perform in ourselves and to the world around us. Of our ongoing struggle between impulse and control, public and private and Ego and Self.

Similarly to the exploration we uncover during our own yoga journey, Sandra’s exhibition mirrors the balance between working within our boundaries; finding comfort and growth within our selves, whilst balancing the act of stepping out of comfort to further our development, gain insights and inspiration, new directions and expectations of others.

In yoga, philosophy and psychology are inextricably mixed, and concepts drawn from one illuminate what is meant by the other. For example, a tenet of yoga philosophy is that every individual is imbued with consciousness, or awareness. Consciousness, they say, is eternal, self-existent, and lies at the core of the manifested universe. It is everywhere, has existed at all times, and in everything. The life of each plant, animal, and human being reflects a portion of it—yet consciousness does not depend upon any single manifestation for its existence.

The seers of yoga tell us that the awareness we perceive within us, and ascribe to the mind, is actually the reflection of a much more profound consciousness lying virtually unseen within. Then they add that the sense of personal identity we take for granted is not our most fundamental self. It is the product of a psychological process.

The mind supplies us with a temporary identity—the ego or individual self—that acts as a psychological garment. But this garment conceals an even more profound and central identity—one that is possible for us to know: pure consciousness. The more imbalanced the ego, however, the more difficult it is to perceive consciousness as it is.

Robinson holds nothing back in 'Balancing Act,' a behind the scenes insight into balancing commitments and creativity. She expresses her series with a succinct quote that encapsulates the beauty of being human in the 21st century,

“We as humans, spend far too much time focused on the ‘have to’s that have to get done that we don’t make the time to follow the ‘must do’s’ that feed our soul. How do we balance who we are with who we perceive ourselves to be?”

A huge thank you to the Ards Art Centre for sharing their wonderful space with us, and of course Sandra Robinson, for creating such inspiring and emotive art.