Last night at dinner I was asked if the gorilla trekking was the most amazing part of my recent trip to Europe and Africa. I paused before I answered, wanting to give this some thought. Yes, the gorillas were amazing, but the most profound experience of our trip was the Genocide Museum in Kigali, Rwanda.

I will claim almost complete ignorance of the horrors that took place in Rwanda in 1994. Ironically, Pierre and I were living in Kinshasa, the capital of neighboring Zaire (DRC), during this time. I remember the streets flooding with refugees but not speaking the language or having access to the news, I did not know about the nightmare that was unfolding just over the Rwandan border. For those of you also unaware of the facts: from April to July 1994, one million Rwandans belonging to the Tutsi tribe were murdered by the Hutu militias.

It was absolutely sobering to walk through this museum, the story unfolding on the walls in front of us through pictures, videos, and artifacts from that time. Personal accounts describing neighbors turning on each other, slaughtering their childhood playmates — a complete dissociation from a shared history and common humanity.

Absorbing the Rwandan history had me questioning how such horrors are possible. The museum clearly described the propaganda used to fuel such hatred, then beautifully tied together the patterns present in other genocides throughout human history: scarcity, fear, and blame rooted in otherness.

You might be asking, "Why am I recounting such a dark experience in a yoga blog?" Because the meaning and practice of yoga are what make it possible to heal. The word yoga means union; otherness happens when we forget that we are all connected. Yoga asks us first to connect to ourselves through focus, breath, and awareness, then to others through listening, empathy, eye contact, and touch.

Now in Rwanda when you ask someone who they are, they no longer say Tutsi or Hutu, they say Rwandan. They are a nation united, working as one towards accountability, healing and restoration. It is truly astonishing to see how they have rebuilt their nation with respect, love and forgiveness. Rwanda wrote a playbook for the whole world to follow on how to repair unimaginable destruction and be an inspiration to emulate.

But if solving the whole world’s problems feels insurmountable, follow the words of the famous yoga teacher Iyengar, "Before you can make peace with the world, you must make peace with your own house. Make this small nation within your own being calm and disciplined. Then peace will reign supreme."

I invite you, on your mat and in meditation, to reflect: Where is your house divided? Where is there possibility for peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation, both with yourself and with the people in your life? Yoga gives us the tools to heal, but it is up to each of us to do our part by using yoga as a practice. Yoga was never meant to be one down dog and done. Yoga is meant to be lived daily, constantly remembering to connect to ourselves and to each other. When connection is present, the horrors like those in Rwanda are not possible, and peace will reign supreme.

See you on your mat,

Debi Grilo