It was my second yoga class I had ever taught. I was more comfortable and confident in myself, and I felt more at ease and even kind of silly. However, I always must start my yoga practice, and now, my yoga classes, with an intention.

I believe it is so important to go inside and ask ourselves what it is we need today –– in this practice, in our lives, where our attention needs to be focused in order to heal, to grow, to rejuvenate or to let go. In the midst of my high-energy mood and my excitement to begin our yoga practice, I completely forgot to ask my students to set an intention, and I forgot to set one for myself. I realized this mistake about halfway through our warm-ups, so I hesitantly told everyone, simply, I forgot. The only person who seemed to be upset with me about my forgetfulness was ME- everyone else seemed perfectly fine with setting their intention after our warm-ups, leading us into the standing postures.

So we did. We all just closed our eyes and set our intentions then. I realized it’s okay to forget- even while leading a yoga class. It’s ok to remember and come back to ourselves and consciously focus our minds and hearts on something we need- or maybe another person who needs it more than we do that day.

So many times in life –– and I am certainly guilty of this –– we wake up without mindfulness, without choosing for ourselves what we would like our day to bring into our souls. It’s simple: if our hearts, souls and minds are longing for something or need something, we just have to put it out there and keep it in our consciousness. And usually, we will receive our peace, our bliss, our balance, our fearlessness, our flexibility or whatever our intention may be that day, that week, or that year. It’s a fabulous thing to dive right in to life’s adventures but it is so important to keep in our minds and hearts our intentions for our lives. And when we forget- and we all will from time to time- we can just come back and re-choose, reset and recreate the intention.

It’s okay, because it’s really never too late.

Namaste.