The Guilty Yogi

Sometimes I feel like a bad yogi. A day or two goes by and I haven’t hit the mat once. There are days when I am running around non stop with work and errands and I just don’t have a minute to get my mat out. Other days I have all the time in the world but just don’t want to get my mat out. I miss one class, then another, and before you know it a week has gone by and I haven’t been to the studio at all. My mat is rolled up in the corner of the room, same as it was last week, and my yoga DVD’s sit untouched in a cabinet. Sound familiar? If you’re like me, when you skip a practice (or three!) you end up feeling guilty. You feel like a bad yogi. I tend to compare myself to other students or teachers who commit to a regular practice and make it look effortless. I see people progressing in their practice and think to myself, if I practiced every day I could do that, too. When this happens I begin to associate my practice with feelings of guilt, negativity and regret. Yuck. Who wants that??

This past Monday, after mentally scheduling all of the yoga classes I would attend for the week and then mentally erasing a few of them, I began to feel that familiar guilt creeping in. Just when I was about to let myself believe I wasn’t a good yogi, yet again, it hit me … I do do yoga every day! Maybe not through asana, the physical practice of yoga, but in a lot of other ways! Why do I judge my status as a yogi on my physical practice alone?

When it comes to yoga, we all tend to focus solely on the physical aspect. That’s western yoga for you! We forget that there are so many other parts that make up a yogic life! Let’s take the yamas and niyamas, for example. These are the internal and external guidelines of a yogic life, the dos and don’ts, if you will. The first yama, ahimsa, means causing no harm in thought, words, or action. For example, when I find a spider in my home I go to great lengths to catch him and bring him outside, even when he puts up a fight! But ahimsa for me goes much deeper than that. As a vegan, I make choices all day to not cause harm to other living beings. I don’t eat animals or their byproducts, I don’t purchase clothing made from animals and I don’t purchase products that are tested on animals. I don’t use or support the use of animals for sport, transportation, entertainment, or anything else that subjects them to a life that is anything less than they deserve. This is by no means an easy task, and I work hard at practicing ahimsa every day. Of course being a vegan or a vegetarian is not the only way to bring the practice of ahimsa into your life. Ahimsa can be practiced in the way we treat all other living beings, the way we treat ourselves, and the way we treat our planet.  Ahimsa means offering a smile instead of a scowl, recycling instead of throwing plastic and cardboard into the trash, catching that spider instead of squashing him when we can and taking care of our bodies and our minds.

Santosha is one of the niyamas, meaning to be content. This is one I struggle with, but none-the-less, I practice it daily. It isn’t easy to be happy with what you have all of the time, especially in a society where we are constantly bombarded with messages telling us to buy “more, more, more!”, and “bigger is better!” I like to remember that I am practicing Santosha every time I chose not to purchase something that I want but don’t really need, or when I chose to give something away to someone else. I am practicing santosha when I stop and take the time to be thankful and grateful for everything and everyone I have in my life. One way we can learn to be more content with what we have is to keep a gratitude journal, a log of all the things we have in life to be grateful for. Anytime you’re feeling a little greedy or perhaps unsatisfied with the people places or things you have in your life take a look through that journal and see all the multitudes of blessings you have!

Another part of yoga I practice daily is pranayama, or breath work. Being a student of yoga for many years, I have learned a lot about the breath. Once something I took for granted, my breath is something I am now very aware of. Throughout the day I practice several different types of pranayama, my favorite being alternate nostril breathing. This type of breath involves breathing in and out alternating nostrils. It calms and balances the minds, and can even help to relieve nausea and headaches. Sometimes I take a moment for alternate nostril breathing when I’m stopped at a red light, before I go to sleep at night, or any time that calls to me.  Even when I don’t have a specific breathing exercise in mind I always try to focus on deep belly breathing as opposed to short shallow breaths. Taking control of my breath, using it to become calm or to become energized, and just being aware of my breath are all ways I practice pranayama daily.

To my surprise, as I thought about the 8 limbs of yoga, I discovered that I actually do practice yoga quite frequently. Not just daily, but multiple times each day. Here I am beating myself up over not having a daily yoga practice, when really I do, I just don’t have a daily asana practice. And who says that a daily asana practice is required to be a good yogi, anyway? Don’t get me wrong, I love asana. When I stay away too long I begin to crave it. I am also always looking for little tricks to help me get into the habit of a more frequent physical practice (my most recent ideas coming in the next blog post!) I’m just pointing out that there is a lot more to yoga then a headstand and a triangle pose. In my opinion, a good yogi is someone who is aware of the different aspects that make up that yogic life (which I am) and who strives to live that yogic life, (which I do!) Good yogi? Check!

So next time your feeling guilty over skipping a few practices, I invite you to consider all of the other ways you can, and do, invite yoga into your daily routines. While asana is an important part of yoga, don’t focus solely on the physical, but rather open up your eyes to the yoga your doing every day!

For more information on the 8 limbs of yoga, please visit: http://www.expressionsofspirit.com/yoga/eight-limbs.htm