Wherever You Are, There You Are

Three great learnings/reminders from tonight’s yoga class:
- If we can let our breath guide our yoga practice, we can let our breath guide our daily lives. Throughout the flow practice tonight, we focused on a cadence of a one-count breath in and a two-count breath out. INNN. OOUUTTTT. INNN. OOUUTTTT. It takes training and focus to do this, but when I let my breath guide me, the poses become easier. My body feels lighter. Everything feels more achievable. I hope that someday I can bring this same attention…this same peace…to my daily life (busy workdays and tantrummy kids included)!
- Forward bending (uttanasana) de-stresses. We did a lot of forward bending tonight, and the teacher talked about how powerful forward bends are in relieving stress. It stretches the hamstrings and hips while calming the mind — providing time and space to (literally) just hang out. If you’d like to see a pretty slideshow of this plus nine other great stress relieving poses, check out this one from the Huffington Post.
- Wherever you are, there you are. My favorite yoga teacher says this classic Zen saying multiple times in every class. It’s such a simple lesson, but such an easy one to lose sight of. I’m so grateful to have yoga to ground me in this essential truth.
If you practice yoga, how does it change the way you think about and live your life?
For me, it’s less of a “how can I apply my yoga learnings to the rest of my life” and more of a “I love yoga, it makes me feel amazing (physically, mentally, etc), and thus it just IS a crucial part of my life.” Which makes me really sad right now that I haven’t been to a class in ages. My husband just last night announced, excitedly, “I think tea is going to be my thing!” I think yoga is my thing and needs to be, once more. Ha.
It CAN be your thing. Your husband can drink tea while he watches your kid and you do yoga! 🙂