How is life like yoga?

Yoga is happening everywhere all the time. Yoga is the art and practice of living. Yoga reminds us that we are human. Yoga makes us aware of our limitations and how far we can stretch. Yoga is about learning on our own path at our own pace. Yoga is about transcending the borders of our bodies. Yoga shows us that we are connected with everything.

Yoga has been my journey of self discovery. I started doing yoga to get fit and add an edge to my running routine. In the beginning, yoga made me feel mad and annoyed because I could not keep up. I was frustrated by elder yogis’ more advanced practices. I was eating their dust.

My practice changed over time. I began to notice small things. I tuned into my body in more refined ways. These messages came in the form of healthy food cravings, listening to my body when it wanted to slow down and resting more in my running practice. I just felt better. I felt more centered, more balanced, more able to breathe into that deep place at the pit of my stomach.

I came to realize that yoga is life.

Have you ever worked so hard in a yoga class that you’re sweating and struggling to make it through? You are filled with absolute bliss when you finally relax in savasana (corpse pose.) The experience of relaxation and transcendence makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Yoga’s hard earned bliss simply translates into the life lesson that great reward requires the greatest work.

Every practice is different. Your body experiences the practice differently. Emotionally, you are always changing and so is your practice. Your life different every day too.

Life is always going to change even if you stick to the same rituals, schedule and job. Life is forever changing.

Yoga echoes impermanence in small whispers.

Yoga reminds us that life is changeable. Yoga trains us to better cope with and accept those changes. Yoga is there to remind us of the intricate subtleties in our lives, our emotions, our bodies and spirits. Yoga reminds us to slow down, to pause and to open our eyes to the beauty around us. Yoga brings us back to a more balanced state and reminds us who we really are at our cores.

So how is yoga like life? The answer is right in front of your face. We sense the answer. The answer is closer to us then the question, yet we have a hard time reaching out and touching it. The answers are not concrete. We hover over the truth for only a few moments. Yoga allows us to just be.

Yoga is

Yoga creates the rhythm of life

Yoga is the ebb and flow of our existence

Yoga is our victories and triumphs

Yoga is the things that sustains our very souls

Yoga is everything and nothing at all

Yoga is the beautiful and the ugly

Yoga is the good and the bad

Yoga both moves us and makes us still

Teresa Kruger is a self-proclaimed dreamer and romantic. She is newly wed and sculpting her life while waiting for beautiful mysteries to unfold before her. Teresa opened her very own yoga studio in Wisconsin. Check out her traditional hatha yoga and meditation classes. She was certified as a hatha yoga teacher in India. When she is not teaching yoga you can find her nose buried in a book, a paintbrush in hand or writing heartfelt essays and poetry. Teresa enjoys vegetarian cooking, walking Maggie (her miniature pinscher), hiking and exploring outdoors.

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Editor: Carrie Stiles