If there is any one thing that I have observed in my soon-to-be 40 years on this planet, just one universal truth that resonates across culture and creed, it’s that the way we as individuals do anything – and I mean anything – is likely the way we do everything else.
Every action you take is a reflection of who you are as a whole person. If you really study yourself, or anyone else for that matter, you’ll quickly find this to be true.
This can be said of your penmanship, your personal hygiene, how well you treat your mother, or whether or not you wear a coat when it’s cold outside. (I still don’t have that one down.) And, of course, this holds true of how you behave when you show up on your mat, ready to practice yoga.
A yoga practice, like the dawning of a new birth, begins with your first conscious breath. From that moment forward, with the rhythm of each inhale and exhale, every movement offers the opportunity to become the conscious expression of how you choose to live your life.
You will face challenges, overcome hardships, experience discomfort and sometimes despair. And then along comes the ecstasy of the often tiny, but always so rewarding signs of progress. Change happens or it doesn’t. You breathe and you move.
Every now and again I have to take pause and check my motivation for practicing yoga. I sometimes find that my old familiar ways of approaching everything else in my life have begun to creep back in. I judge my progress as good or bad, and right or wrong. I create silly expectations or unrealistic demands, and then some part of me begins to suffer when they are not realized.
It’s only when I remember to use my practice as a means of witnessing myself and how I react to the very human tragedies that occur on my mat, that I begin to feel like I invite in the full power of my practice.
It’s the times when I practice just to confront myself, just to practice my skills of being a human being that I truly feel successful.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, that’s why I step on my mat every day. And I can honestly say it makes a world of difference when I step off.
