Yoga is an Evolution

I remember being a young yoga teacher and hearing a story that brought tears to my eyes. It was about two yoga students practicing with their teacher in India. They told him that millions of people were practicing yoga in America but were doing it for the wrong reasons. They said to their teacher that Americans were doing yoga to get a tighter butt and to look better in their yoga pants. The teacher started crying. The students thought he was crying because of what they said, and he was, but not the reason they thought. He was crying from joy. He said, "It doesn't matter why they start practicing yoga; if they forget who they are, they will remember."

I will never forget this story and how it made me feel the first time I heard it. I heard it at a time when I forgot who I was or simply didn't know yet. I also remember this story today because this week, I was talking to a friend about why people practice yoga. It seemed like my friend had an opinion like the yoga students in the above story. I challenged her opinion and said, " Maybe it doesn't matter why people begin the practice."

When I started practicing yoga at age twenty-two, I was trying to escape how I was feeling and used the practice to escape. I was trying to feel better. Like any escape, It eventually stopped making me feel better; instead, I felt worse. Twenty-five years later, I can truthfully say that I practice for the opposite reason I did at age twenty-two. I practice to feel everything. I practice to lean in. I practice to connect and feel myself as I am.

Is my experience now enhanced because I also knew the opposite? Yes, I believe it is. When I started practicing yoga, I thought it was downward-facing dog and Warrior One. Today, I believe that yoga is what you do while you are in downward-facing dog. I am deeply passionate about yoga and using the practice to connect with myself because I know the pain of disconnection.

Yoga is an evolution. What a gift we have been given to grow and heal here.

If you have found yoga in this life, it's a gift.

As we are coming up on Yoga Nyla's final days for our introductory special of 4 weeks for $40, I ask you to invite someone to join you in this gift of practice.

May you be where you are, and let the people you surround yourself with be where they are too.

May we grow together and at our own pace.

May we all share the gift.

xo,

Diana