Why I Practice

I just finished a wonderful yoga practice outside, even amidst all the construction noise in my neighborhood. As I moved through my sequence I could feel my body sighing and letting go. That is what I love about yoga. The ease it creates in my body.

It strikes me that today, on my 52nd birthday, that so many of us, especially women, do not love our bodies. I know I have struggled my whole life with loving my body in all of its imperfections.

And this is where yoga heals me.

Yoga actually means “union.” As I move through the asanas, I am having a communication with my body. I feel gratitude for all it has done and is able to do for me. I am continually amazed at how strong my body has been when I really needed it to be. I can, for just a minute, realize that I am not my body. My body serves me, and for that I am grateful. But I am not my body. I tend to forget that sometimes.

I also reflect that at times, I make my body’s job so much harder by the choices I make. Staying up late, eating foods that make my body function at a lower level, punishing my body with excessive exercise because I choose to overeat or eat unhealthy foods. As I move through my asana practice, I forgive myself and love my body for taking care of me anyway.

So for me, it’s not how many pretzels I can contort my body into, or how many feats of strength or yoga tricks I am able to perform, but how yoga helps me commune with myself, creating ease in my body and my spirit.

Practicing yoga helps me accept and love my body and myself, no matter what I look like in the mirror. And I think that we can always do with a little more love in our lives, don’t you?

Namaste friends