I asked my friend and colleague Hala Khouri from Off The Mat and Awakened Heart, Embodied Mind Teacher Trainings to share her perspective on how and why yoga works.

What she said blew me away!

This moment of lucid wisdom is one of the three points she made.

Essentially, Hala very quickly sums up something quite profound: True freedom lies in becoming fearless in the face of discomfort. She goes on below to say that being truly resilient means being able to be present with what scares us without running away.

The tendency in our pop spiritual marketplace is toward a message that says you can just “choose” to be happy all the time, magically control your reality through your mind and have everything you want if you just set strong enough intentions and believe with all your heart.

How refreshing, in contrast, to hear this grounded, psychologically savvy, soulful framing of freedom!

It reminds me that the real nitty gritty of transformational practice, the place where it really counts is usually a few layers in, and in has to do with where we are hurt, suffering, weak or coiled up like a spring ready to explode at any moment.

These places of growth and healing deep within us benefit from patience, compassion and the cultivating of courageous resilience.

I hear Hala suggesting that by developing these capacities we discover sustainable freedom and grace, and that’s the best definition of transformative practice I have ever heard!

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Editor: Travis May

Photo: Provided by Author