For the Love of Yoga. Love radiates out from the core of our being when unobstructed, the practice of yoga will remove any obstruction.

Why yoga? You may ask. This movement of body has been around for thousands of years. Roughly 100 years ago, yoga came to America. America has discovered the benefits of yoga as a healthy lifestyle in the last 40-50 years in particular. In the last 20 years, yoga has begun to explode into a practice done by millions. Yoga is accessible for every body. The movement can be gentle, or strengthening and powerful. The mind is opened up to new possibilities. The heart displays a greater capacity to love self. Awareness is shifted to begin to truly live in the present, to notice surrounding in a new light. Yoga involves the senses!

Yoga means to yoke. “To experience yourself as both the center of the universe and a dust mote on the filament of history. To choose to have a practice – a daily discipline of yoking your heart to your mind, your mind to your breath, your breath to your body, your body to the earth and the rest of humanity – is to pass this threshold into the examined, mindful life.” Wanderlust, A Modern Yogi’s Guide to Discovering Your Best Self.

Why do you do yoga? How has your life changed since your discovery of yoga? Do you allow your mind to be stretched as well as your physical form? Have you opened up the eyes of your heart to experience life in a new light? Are you mindfully moving, allowing the breath to guide the way? How do you take yoga into your every day life? At work, at school, running errands, relationships, on holiday…… Yoga is not just the physical form of the pose, but the flowing vibrancy of the soul, creating new pathways in the brain, stimulating the mind. It is a new rhythm to move through life with.

My practice of yoga has developed within me a greater sense of peace, a calm through the storms of life. My practice of yoga has energized me to dream my dreams and to live them out. To pursue my passions with confidence and certainty. To live from the heart unapologetically and release more of the logistics of the mind. To, as my yoga mug says, “Let That Shit Go!” The course of my life has shifted so positively dramatically from my daily practice of yoga, that it has become as important to me as the air I breathe. Yoga has brought me to the awareness of the lack of compassion I have for myself and the need to cultivate my inner voice with positivity. I want my yoga practice to bear fruit every day of my life.

I have committed to bringing about awareness of breath, mindfulness, physical movement, laughter, and joy in the classes that I teach at Hummingbird Yoga Studio and throughout our community. It is good to not take life so seriously all the time that we lose sight of that child-like faith that we were born with. It is okay to tip over, to feel silly, to think, “No way am I going to try that!” I encourage you to step deeper into each pose, not only with the body, but with the connection of breath, heart, mind, and soul. I ask you again, “Why do you do yoga? Is it changing your life? Are you committed to change?”

On our yoga journey, may we all inspire, uplift, be a blessing, and bring hope and love to the world around us!

“At the moment of commitment, the entire universe conspires to assist you.” –Goethe