What is Yoga?
In my many years in the world of yoga, I have learned some valuable lessons; the most important one of all is that there is no mold for us to fit into. I have never been one to fit the proverbial mold and I constantly allow myself the liberty to change my mind and remain open to life’s natural evolution.
At what stage do we get to a point where we can proudly wear the badge of a “yogi”? I believe this is an ever evolving path and there’s never a point where we can say “I’m there”. There is no black and white – but there are many shades that we move through on our evolution to becoming more free and more connected to what’s real.
What is yoga? Yoga is union with which connects all of us, union with our own spirit and authentic self. This can happen on your yoga mat, or as you sit and reflect on life or delve within in meditation to connect with spirit through breath.
It’s always so interesting for me as a teacher to observe my students on the first day of a course. We all present our “colors” – but as we open up, evolve, we are stretched to our limits, and often a little beyond, and our shades start to emerge. We are all multi-faceted and we all have our own pace of growing – there are many points throughout a course where resistance starts to arise.
It’s often in the second or third week, as our shades start to let themselves be revealed that this happens and as breakthroughs are encouraged and mirrors are held up, if a student is willing, more shades and hues are revealed. It’s often the people who meet with the greatest resistance that make the biggest breakthroughs and end up being the bright shining stars.
Yoga challenges us to be real, to face our fears, to move through our limitations and resistance and it’s an ever-evolving and changing path. This is why I choose to call it “Shades Of Yoga” – there is no one color to describe it.
