Today I want to invite you to take stock of all that you have been able to experience in your yoga practice. This can be looked at in several ways.

1. How was your mind with regard to the practice, when you began, and now? Just notice what differences there may be. Are they subtle differences? That is great. Slow and steady changes are actually preferable here in most instances.

2. How does your mind work with your present daily life? Does it seem the same as when you first began yoga? Are you doing something different, or it is just naturally happening on its own?

3. How do you feel emotionally in your yoga practice? In your daily life compared to when you first started yoga? Are there changes?

4. What other differences are there in your own experience of the practice of yoga, and in daily life? Have you made other changes in your life since you started practicing yoga? Are you able to be steady, consistent, kind, or patient in ways you were not before? Are these subtle changes or big ones?

This is really about noticing your own experience. But if you are seeing differences, or changes, have you noticed an appreciation that comes with noticing?

I, personally, feel a great appreciation. Not just for my practice, and the gift of yoga, but also for my own body’s ability to do this work, and to grow on so many different levels. I feel grateful that this is a way to experience the healing and development of my body, and that this can be shared instead of being a lonely process. This sense of gratitude for the process and the possibility is something that I seem to take stock of every day. How this has worked in your life, and your opinion of what it is that makes the body to adapt and strengthen, relax and change really matters. See how you experience this and notice how your appreciation might encourage you to move forward in your practice (give you motivation), in the encouragement of others, and in a growing sense of shared experience, or in some other way. Just see what your own experience invites you to do.

 

Yoga Pose of the Day: Pyramid Pose – Parsvottanansana

Yogic Concept of the Day: Notice what is appreciated about the practice and my experience of it, and how I feel encouraged to act in accord with this appreciation.