Yoga Is...

As we settle into fall and soon winter, we also settle into a more refined rhythm as we contract inside, and perhaps, deepening our dedication to the practice of yoga. What does that look like? And what does it really mean? What is yoga anyway? These questions often come up for me as I evolve in my practice and what I offer through teaching. Asking these questions often allows for further refinement of how I can fully benefit from my practice. As I evolve, the answers evolve.


For every yogi, there is a different answer. I have come up with some for now:

Yoga can be simple, but we easily complicate it. I often think I need to have a perfect clean space, my mat, some sort of scent wafting in the air, and a perfected playlist, in order to get into asana practice. Yes it all helps. But if that is not all there, the yoga begins when I let go of this perfect scenario and start breathing and moving. Or within the larger sense, we might say, “that’s not real yoga,” or “this is yoga.” And we are sent down the analytical spiral of what makes yoga, yoga. And judging others for om-ing or not om-ing. Yet, we still haven’t had a still moment with ourself. To make any practice of yoga simple, start where you are and accept it as is, breathe in, breathe out and repeat with full awareness.

Yoga is a relationship between the observer (You) and the observed (You!). We practice yoga because we want to change in some way, even in the most subtle way. Whether the desired change is a lifetime of wellness or to open up and sweat from a one hour hot yoga class. We are still in observance of the self and becoming more and more aware of the challenges along the way and how we might overcome them. In The Heart of Yoga, T.K.V. Desikachar suggests that yoga can mean, “to attain what was previously unattainable.” And that yoga is acting in a way such that our attention is directed toward the activity we are engaged in. The advantage of our attentiveness is that we perform better (speaking, writing, asanas, cooking, walking, ect.), making less mistakes, being more loving and compassionate with ourself and others, extinguishing judgement, and expressing our True Self. We practice in hope that we will not repeat the same mistakes we did yesterday or today, and become a better person tomorrow.

Yoga is being unattached to results and the effort it takes. This is a principle straight from the Gita (Bhagavad Gita). Work for the sake of work. Finding the action within inaction, and the inaction within action. Following the path of dharma from the heart, and trusting it as truth. Getting your foot behind your head is not practical or that important in our day to day living, and nobody really cares except for You. Arriving at that place, on the mat, following years of preparation (or hours for some), matters only to the yogi. It signifies completion and arrival at a juncture that holds within it a very personal story. The story of the effort, the dedication, the tears, the laughter, the challenges that were overcome along the way.

Yoga is art. An expression of shakti through and within us.
“...to benefit most fully from the creative process, we must give up the need to benefit; we must surrender to the dictates of the process, not dictate the process....the therapeutic value of art making lies in the power of the subconscious having free rein as the eyes track the design that emerges, feeding information back to the subconscious so that a dialog is established. The more we are able to submit to the impulses of the inner being, the more enjoyable the process becomes, and the more authentic the product.”
~Nina Wise from A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life

There is so much more. But that's plenty enough for now.