By: Kyle Leia Heyesen
“When you are in a state of yoga, or wholeness, you rest in your own true nature” ~Judith Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life
The meaning of yoga is to yoke or unite. The practice of yoga is designed to help us become united in mind, body and spirit. Entering into a state of yoga brings us into our wholeness and here we rest in our own true nature. Our true nature is one of peace, love, truth, light and clarity. This, the yogis teach, is a remembering, a homecoming, a returning to what has always existed within us. This is a place where our egos begin to dissolve, comparison to others as lesser or greater than us fades as a fog burned away by sunlight and we see the incredible beauty in humanity’s differences. Judgment of self and others, the “shoulds”, the “if onlys”, the when this happens, when that happened….the grasping for something to be different, for something outside of ourselves to bring us happiness, fulfillment, contentment - all of this washed away by the breath flowing in and out, undulating like waves, drawing us back to our true selves, pulling us back into the present moment, realizing that this moment is all we have and we can experience peace, calm and contentment as it is always available to us. Even if it is below the surface of our current circumstances, even if there is difficulty and pain – we learn how to bear anything we face allowing a sea of grace to carry us through so that we may respond skillfully. We learn to become a witness to our thoughts and emotions, taking pause, allowing for space and responding instead of reacting by default. Yoga is an act of love and self-care. Yoga is the realization that the only perfection that exists is being perfectly where we are at, in this moment, humbled by our humanness and personal limitations, by the fact that no one has ever lived a perfect life – so we practice yoga, our mat a sacred laboratory, where we reconnect with ourselves within the confines of our bodies, and know we do not strive for a perfect pose, for no one has ever accomplished a perfect pose, but rather we begin to know ourselves more deeply, practice being present in our bodies and for all the experiences of life; and, from this place transformation is possible. We reach our full potential as human beings and experience greater wellbeing and aliveness in our moment to moment existence.
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