The Yoga Life

I love a good metaphor and I cannot help but see them everywhere I look....especially when my eyes are closed. A recent one I have been playing with is how everything about Yoga is like how I want to live my life.

During this month of April I have been taking part in a Yoga Challenge offered by local Yoga instructor, Kath Thompson owner of Main Street Yoga, http://www.yogamansfield.com/. I have been exposed intermittently to Yoga in the past and knew I liked it, although my recent experiences have dug deeper into the heart of me.

Here's some of the parallels I see between Yoga and Life:

In Yoga, all that matters is your experience. There is no need to compare your practice, flexibility or ability to anyone else. What is right for you, right now, is all that matters. This is true in life too. If I compare my life to someone else, the joy of what I am experiencing gets lost. I am no longer present to my unique experience.

An important part of Yoga is breathing. The practice of breathing helps bring you more present and aligned as body, mind, spirit. In every day life, I use breathing to bring me present to what is "now". When I am focused on breathing, my mind quiets and I quickly come into alignment with who I really am, rather than confused by whatever chaos may be happening around me.

Stretching is another lovely part of Yoga. This loving, gentle way of taking your body just a bit beyond what it believed was its limit, feels wonderful. My life stretching is the same. If I keep myself limited only to what I know and don't stretch beyond that limit, my life cannot expand to what is possible..... plus it feels sooooo gooooood when I allow it.

Guidance is a part of Yoga that is vital for me. Listening with my eyes closed to Kath's step by step gentle instruction, takes me through the poses with ease (at least most of the time). If I allow my body to respond and I don't resist, the guidance takes me to a position I did not know was possible. In life, I also have guidance. It comes from deep within me. It is also a gentle voice that takes me to a lovely place of living, one step at a time. When I trust and allow, I am delighted by the journey.

The greatest comparison I see between Yoga and life is that it is the process that feeds your soul, not being focused on the end result.

In Yoga we chant Ommmmmmmm. In life I chant Yummmmmmmm.