Practicing Yoga

Every class my yoga instructor starts with an intention for the class and for the day. Today I had Ryann and she is fabulous. She told us that it always surprises her when she tells people she's going to yoga and they tell her to have a good workout. What surprises me is people tell me to have fun stretching, if they only knew. The funny thing about yoga is that there are physical benefits to the practice. The building of stability muscles, the loss of weight, flexibility etc. But yoga isn't about achieving weight loss or lean muscles; those are simply by products for what the yogi is trying to achieve. What yoga focuses on is grace, patience, mindfulness and concentration. We aim for grace and practice it through dancer's pose which forces us to use stabilizing muscles, our core, etc. The benefits to yoga are what most people who are new or who are unfamiliar with yoga think of and what they associate with yoga. But once the practice begins it becomes about calming the mind, even getting out of one's mind and into one's body; it's about finding what's important in life, living in the moment and learning about oneself.

I practice yoga four times a week and I do it because I am trying to find my patience, I'm striving to be graceful,  and I need to let the pressures of the day fall away. I leave it all on my mat and yes, since starting on November 8th I've gone down a pant size and a bra size; I have built muscles I never knew existed and I love that as well. But the real joy of yoga is going and every time getting deeper in my practice. I may not get better every day because every day has a different challenge, but every day I become more connected with myself, with the present and with my intentions.

That's what yoga has done for me. That's why I tweet about it, why I wake up at ungodly hours to squeeze a class in and why I find myself doing more laundry than I ever thought was possible. Because who I am becoming and the lessons I am learning through those sixty minutes is worth every (expensive) penny to me.