It happens all the time – know why?  We are spiritual beings living a human existence, that’s why.

I know yoga teachers who have had affairs with students.
I know yoga teachers who are self-centered.
I know yoga teachers who gossip.
I know yoga teachers who have envious tendencies.
I know yoga teachers who are not easy to forgive others.

I do my best to not judge any of that (though I must admit I am still challenged with not judging affairs since I have strong opinions about what it takes for a person to cheat on a spouse/partner) and live my life, making the best choices for where I am at – today.  It is my belief that everyone is doing the best they can, at any point in their life, given their current circumstances.  So, let’s take a real life example – if I reach out to someone and ask to have a conversation about something that I think did not go well in our relationship and the other person makes the choice to not respond, I need to let go.  It can be challenging especially when we want to mend fences and instead we are left creating stories about the situation, but in the end, we can only take responsibility for our own actions and reactions and make the choice to move on.  That is yoga!

Yoga doesn’t ask us to believe, it asks us to practice, examining our experience until we can witness the truth in the book of our own heart. ~ Dave Stringer

What do we all have in common – yoga practitioners and those who do not step on the mat?  We make choices, we make mistakes …. and if we are open to receive them, we learn valuable life lessons.

This is what I know for sure:

Every day we make choices.

We choose one thought over another,
we choose one behavior over another,
we choose to take one path over another.

When we investigate our lives,
existing with awareness
and taking responsibility for our choices,

we are choosing to live an authentic life.