I have always been curious. I have the sneaking suspicion I can be annoying with my curiosity. I watch when I should be resting.  I read so much the ideas and words blur together.  I ask questions that can be seen as intrusive.  As an adult I have some awareness of how many questions I ask; as a child, I must have been trying at times.

One of the reasons that yoga immediately felt like home to me is that at the very heart of yoga is inquiry.  Everything is a question.  You have stepped on your mat at the YMCA because you are curious about something.  You have chosen to sit and meditate because you want to strengthen your ability to be present in the moment.  You choose to practice early morning pranayama to bring calm to your life and sweet peace to your soul.  You have a dog-eared copy of The Heart of Yoga that travels with you to remind you that no matter what facet of yoga initially drew you in, you practice all facets of yoga to have a complete practice.  Your breath teaches you patience, or at least informs your body to be patient.  All of these different things are questions we ask ourselves through our yoga practices.

Yoga is unifying.  It is not just a yoga community that is unified, it is the community of you.  Yoga unifies you.

Yoga brings you to the present moment. Whether that is so you don’t fall or so that you hold that ball of light in your mid-brain doesn’t matter. Its just that you are there. The present moment may not be pleasant. If you don’t experience the unpleasant, how will you know what is pleasant?  Because the someone tells you so?  Most of the people around us have a reason for wanting to influence our decisions and thoughts, from the people who write the ads we see on tv & the internet to our kids who really don’t want to watch a movie with us.  Form your own decisions.  Find your truth.  Live in the moment and live what feels real to your very soul.  Sound exhausting?  Maybe.  My belief is the more we practice self-awareness of mind and body the easier it will get.

As a world, we have taken simple things and complicated them.  Too many things to list but not enough to learn from.   Time to strip things back down to what our mind, body & soul truly crave.

Positive changes, step by step. Not just flexibility of the body, also flexibility of the mind. Not just flexibility of the mind, also flexibility of the breath. Add in strength and patience. In this way and many other ways, you will come together. You will attain what you thought to be unattainable.  As you bring peace, strength and knowledge into your own world, you will improve it, in improving your little world, you will start to improve lives around you.  Not by trying to, not by trying to be a hero for adulation or a rock star yoga teacher for fame or success, but by creating an atmosphere within yourself where you are constantly feeding your curiosity.  Becoming present in your own life is the simplest thing we can do for ourselves and the world.