The nature of life is such that we are bound to experience a little rip in our heart at some point in our life.

For me, when I feel paralyzed by my emotions because of this little rip in my heart,

When my heart refuses to open any wider,

When love is something that feels like a threat,

Yoga is my salvation

And will always continue to be my salvation.

For it is the only moment in which I am in fact moved by this little rip in my heart.

It is the only place which I can always access,

It’s always open,

Always there.

It allows me to just be,

No pretending,

No holding back,

No toning down of my emotions.

I can feel exactly that which I feel,

Express only that which is my truth at that very moment.

Shall it be an outrageous burst of anger with tears flowing down my face,

Sorrows drenching my mat

Or a sublime dance of love,

With leaps of joy,

Where my feet rarely spend time on my mat.

And moments in which they do,

The beat leaves an everlasting echo till the very next encounter.

For here on my mat,

I am never judged,

Never loved any less,

Never shunned aside.

Never owned,

But freed by every stumble,

Every fall to the knees,

Every act of surrender,

Thus the place where the ever present eternal strength rises from.

Holds me in its fearless hands

And embraces this momentarily weak soul,

Though never seeking to conquer it,

But only to soothe it.

To soothe it, so that it may once again step into the world,

Still with a little rip in its heart,

Yet more courageous and more wholesome than ever before.

Able to love a little more than before,

To embrace with compassionate arms the culprit of this rip.

For these little rips in our heart do not injure us,

But merely allow an opening for light to shine through.

The kind of light which heals,

Which has healed many souls for many lifetimes.

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Apprentice Editor: Amanda Fleming Taylor/Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

Photo: Syed Rahan via Pixoto