12 May Be The Light

I was in hot yoga this morning and at the end of class one our fabulous teachers talked about each of us having “a fire inside of us.” Quite literally when you’re in a 99’ degree room moving, twisting and inverting for 90 minutes. But she continued to say that, “yoga allows this fire to burn brighter.” This really resonated with me especially in this season of my life as I am itching to pivot my career.

When we step on our yoga mat and look at ourselves in the mirror for 90 minutes. We are literally watching ourselves suffer through the poses, with sweat dripping in our face feeling defeated and tired at many points in class. It’s raw.

But then as we start to come back to our mats and practice these poses we learn about ourselves and start to gain clarity. We can see ourselves in a different way. We speak more compassionately to ourselves. We start to see growth and success.

The ironic thing is, yoga is not about the poses. It’s about what we learn about ourselves as we progress through the kramas or steps of the postures. We start to become more aware of our bodies, both physically and mentally. Once our bodies start to open, our mind begins to open. Energy can move more freely through the body. We can literally pinpoint tendencies or habits that are prohibiting us from moving forward in whatever obstacle we are struggling with.

Then our fire begins to burn brighter. We can see our purpose in this life and how keeping this amazing gift to ourselves in not only selfish but unfulfilling. Each human has vastly different skills, preferences and viewpoints. Each of these characteristics are not right or wrong, but they add value to the world. Once we figure out what really lights our fire we have to continue to fuel this fire and share that light with those around us.

That is what I am practicing.