Yoga For Life is a collection of essays focused on one regular life as seen through the lens of yoga. In them, yoga's deepest gifts are discovered in the mundane activities of daily life - laundry, grocery shopping, raising children, going to work, friendships, gardening - you name it! These personal, insightful meditations bring yoga's ancient spirituality, wisdom, and mindfulness sharply into modern focus.
Yoga is a practice designed to help us find contentment, happiness and faith in every aspect of our lives. Yoga For Life is written to help you as the reader – no matter the level of your practice – embrace the positive thinking, mental resilience, and transformation that develops by taking yoga beyond the mat and into your life.
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It might seem obvious that bringing a dream to life can take hard work and careful planning. Be careful! Your plans and work ethic can easily kill a dream. Creating a dream come true requires patience in and contentment with the process that might make no sense, a willingness to let your dream go its own way at times, and the ability to maintain your dual roles as both dreamer and a creator.
One of the most powerful lessons I have gained from raising three children to young adulthood is that they each need to be loved in a different way. It might surprise you that the same is true for the way we love ourselves – it needs to vary! Our work (and it’s profoundly rewarding work) is to discover as many of these different ways to love as possible. Because when we love someone (especially ourselves) the way they need to be loved, not only do we help them stretch toward their potential, but we also stretch a little closer to our own potential.
Go ahead. Let yourself “feel all the feels.” And don’t be worried if you don’t actually know specifically how or what you’re feeling. Knowing you are a mess and need to do something to sort yourself out is enough. A good trick is to unroll your mat. There’s no better place than there to figure out that it’s just life that you’re feeling.
Being yourself is hard. It is easy to get mixed up by the advice and pressures from the world around you. Mindfulness practices such as yoga, meditation and journaling can help you hear more clearly and walk more surely to the beat of your own drum.
Do the good thing. Say the kind words. Even when you’re having a bad day. You might never know how your generosity impacts others. But, as soon as you choose to make someone else’s day a great one, you will realize that your day just got a little better, too.
Does September leave you feeling like you’re at the starting line of a race you’re not quite ready for? It is possible to bring some of summer’s slower, quieter rhythms into the mad dash of this busy time of year.
We all find ourselves in situations (sometimes over and over again) where our reactions are way out of proportion with reality. As crazy as it might seem, these reactions are a choice. Mindfulness practices such as yoga help us learn to choose our responses in even the most stressful situations. This ability frees us from the power that old habits and triggers have over us.
If a coming change has you an emotional wreck like my looming empty nest has me, it’s OK. Every change and shift in life is an opportunity to practice letting go. It is by letting go that we stay open to change. It is by being open to change that we allow ourselves to change. The opposite is also true. When we resist or fight change, we eliminate the possibility for our own growth. So join me in opening your arms wide to let go and embrace all that life is bringing your way!
Living next door to an awful construction project has taught me a surprising lesson: living in a way that is contrary to the lessons I’ve learned on my yoga mat feels just awful. Take it from me. There is no peace and no contentment possible when you’re filled with disdain, anger and loathing. This knowledge is inspiration for me to keep practicing as I inch my way back to living and feeling like the person I am on my mat.