You Can Practice Yoga Every Day
During the opening session of my yoga teacher training, our leader set out specific instructions to follow for the forthcoming months. One was to practice yoga every day. At first, I wondered how I could balance all the reading, assignments, a daily yoga practice, my triathlon training, and my full-time job.
The teacher then clarified, “It doesn’t necessarily mean getting onto the mat.”
Although marketing and Instagram have popularized yoga to be about particular poses and the right yoga pants, there are other facets of yoga that can’t be conveyed in a photo.
In fact, the restraints and observances, called the yamas and the niyamas, can give you immediate results in your life because they involve your everyday choices and behaviors. Let’s look at each closely.
The Yamas (self-restraint)
Ahimsa — refrain from harm
Obviously, we could interpret this to mean “thou shalt not kill,” but consider some of the aggressive thoughts and actions you might encounter in one day. Anger, if left unobserved and unprocessed, can result in words or behaviors that could bring a degree of harm to another — or yourself.
Some will interpret this yama to be about a vegan diet, and if that’s for you, that’s fine, as long as it…
