Patience

I think one of the biggest lessons that yoga is teaching me is patience.  I still don’t have the hang of it but at least I’m consciously thinking about it.  It is not in my nature to be patient.  I want to do XYZ now, and I will be one of the best at it, and I will be one of the best at it in a short period of time.

Yoga isn’t something that can be put in place of “XYZ” in the sentence above.  Yoga is called a “practice” because it is not something that can be learned absolutely.  It is something that a person practices.  A person’s yoga practice will evolve, but it will never reach so-called perfection.

For me, yoga is an exercise in patience because your body does not transform overnight.  I started practicing yoga about a year ago and am still unable to do many of the postures because my body simply won’t allow me to do them yet.  Am I much closer than I was a year ago?  Absolutely, but we don’t tend to look back at progress made – only forward at progress we have yet to make.

So I need to start looking back at where I started more often, and showing myself some gratitude for the work I have done thus far.  I need to start looking at the present and only the present when I am in the middle of my yoga practice – focusing on the one posture I am doing, forgetting about the previous posture and not thinking about the next one.  Just breathing, in and out, adjusting my body within its ability into the posture right now.

I think my intention for today’s practice will be to “breathe, and focus only on just this moment.”