1. Be diligent. Put in the hard work.

2. Be patient with your body and your mind. Trust that everything will come when you are ready—not when you think you’re ready, but when you are really ready.

3. Never compare your practice to the practice of someone else. You do not know their story. Your practice is beautifully and uniquely yours, as is theirs.

4. Do not be afraid to fall. Falling is how we learn. Get back up, and try again.

5. Do not give yourself deadlines. Goals are great, timelines are not. If you want to touch your toes, practice that every day. Whether you get it in six days or six months is irrelevant.

6. Do not wait until tomorrow. Do it now, because tomorrow you will wish you had started today.

7. Nix the word ‘impossible’ from your vocabulary. Whenever things seem that way, trust me, they are not.

8. Stick with it. Do not give up. Whatever you do, do not give up. When you hit a plateau, keep going. When you face-plant, keep going. When you finally ‘get’ a pose, keep going. Do not stop.

9. Remember that you are amazing. You are light, you are love and you are strength. Everything you will ever need is already inside you. And when you start to doubt that, read this again. And again. And again.

10. Yoga is not about balancing on your arms or putting your leg behind your head. Yoga is about the breath, and creating a deeper connection to your Self. The physical practice is beautiful, but what’s really beautiful is what lies within.

Tami Apland is a yogi, writer, snowboarder and free-spirited lover of life. Find her on Facebook at Yoga Seed PDX, or via email at [email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

Article prepared by Assistant Yoga Editor, Soumyajeet Chattaraj.