If you walk the path of yoga for long enough you will realize: Yoga is a practice of the Self, through the Self, to the Self.
A simpler way of saying it: Yoga is about you.
Not you escaping your life for an hour and taking some deep breaths. Not you having the occasional moment of spirituality. But you realizing what you really are and where you come from.
When we step into our practice, there will be some tangible benefits.
But it’s important to realize what’s happening at a deeper level when we practice yoga. When we practice yoga we practice presence, and the natural effect of presence is letting go and surrendering. The natural effect of “being in the now” is a slow-drip understanding that we are consciousness itself and therefore intrinsically connected to the whole and the sacred. Read that again 😉
Now in simpler terms—while you’re turning your body into a pretzel and pushing yourself in kriya and quieting the mind in meditation—you’re totally restructuring the way you see yourself and therefore the way you experience life.
Whether we realize it or not, our “practice” is a routine letting go of rigid identity and stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Our practice is, above all, the streamlined process of tapping into our true potential.
Not the potential that was conditioned into us based on our upbringing, culture, and life story. The potential that is your birthright as a being; as an expression of creative intelligence.
If you stick with yoga (or any spiritual path) for long enough, questions will arise: What is it that I *really* want? What am I actually capable of? Who would I be if I let go of my stories? What would I do if I weren’t afraid?
And then the practice becomes a gradual dialogue of answering these questions. It becomes a process of you stepping into your higher potential.
It feels like you’re stepping onto the mat and back bending… What’s actually happening is you’re opening up to possibility.
It feels like you’re twisting your spine… What’s actually happening is you’re clearing the stories that have held you back for years.
It feels like you’re sweating and breathing and enjoying some movement… What’s actually happening is you’re tuning into the best version of yourself and commanding reality to respond to that frequency.
If there’s one thing you can take from all this: never underestimate the power of your practice to completely transform every area of your life in the direction of love.
Note that it’s not easy to start realizing your own potential. Actually, the amount of letting go can be excruciating. If you want to play in the field of your highest potential, attachment to comfort must be the first thing that goes.
But ultimately there is no better feeling than coming home to oneself. To realizing one self. There is no greater bliss.
Where there is yoga—union, oneness—there is no loss. Where there is yoga, there is only growth. Where there is yoga, there is only love. Keep on practicing <3