When the term “practice” is used for your yoga routine, it is appropriate in as many ways as I know. I have been doing yoga for five years and there are still so many things I cannot do. And yet there are a lot of things I can. Yoga is a life journey, a practice not only with poses but also with meditation and faith. We come to our mat because we have made a commitment to our disciplines.
Many come to me, discouraged, or sometimes just convinced from the beginning that they could never practice yoga.
They think that yoga is just skinny girls twisted up in pretzels and don’t realize the benefits that can be achieved at basic levels of practice, easily attained. Or they do not think they can train their bodies to lie still or their minds to rest. Yet anything can be achieved through practice.
There are some poses I have practiced for years, that I am just now connecting with and that feeling of accomplishment over endless days of discipline is thrilling.
It is also a delight to see someone, after hearing the same cues for a pose over and over to finally make the mental connection and be able to experience the intended benefits.
Yoga is a practice, a commitment. And I encourage everyone to stretch their minds outside of the yogi stereotypes you see to the idea that yoga is for everyone. It is simply a practice.
What have you achieved in your yoga practice? If not yoga, what have you achieved in other areas of discipline? And what keeps you motivated for your discipline?
