What is Yoga?

Defining yoga feels like quite the important undertaking. Luckily, yoga would tell me not to stress about it because I can change that definition according to my own direct experience mañana. Just the word yoga itself in Sanskrit translates to at least fifteen different English words. At first this felt overwhelming, but on second assessment, because I know the integrity behind all that is yoga, now feels warm and tender, like my grandma offering me guidance but not telling me what I’m “supposed” to do.

From the get go we are being asked to discern, “what is yoga?” by our very own accordance. So when grandma points my ship in a trusted direction, the sea of words I find myself sailing upon are: yoking, joining, harnessing, using, remedy, cure, method, way, device, and means. For whatever reason, WAY, calls my name and so I listen. What up “Way”, I say, and “Way” opens its grand, exquisite, and yet somehow understated doors to me. Yoga is a way. It’s a way of being, it’s a way like a direction, and it’s a way like a, how to. Yoga is when you are found in the magic of a sunset, or when you are not separate from the boat and the boat is not separate from the water. And because those times are sure to arrive when you can’t find the sunset or maybe even believe that there is no sun, yoga points you in her direction. Yoga doesn’t ask you where you have been or shame you for how long you’ve been gone. Yoga teaches you how to paddle, how to read the water, how to navigate its waves, and how to feel the warmth of the sun on your skin.

Yoga is the practice AND the big show. To be forthcoming, for me, she’s mostly the practice. Because even though I have an understanding that the big show is always right now, I still have trouble being the star. More times than not, I am thinking about how the choreography is “supposed” to go, what parts I keep chronically messing up and cannot seem to learn or unlearn, and how I wished I looked skinnier in my costumes.

So whether you resonate with: way or yoking or joining, or remedy, doesn’t really matter because its always a multiple choice question with no wrong choice as the answer. The most important part is that YOU choose the answer. Yes, listen to grandma, but don’t let her choose for you. Just as you cannot allow your mom or your dad or your bestie or your partner choose for you, for they will not be the ones to experience the repercussion of your choice, you will. And that’s not a threat, that, is an invitation. Yoga is the eternal invitation to fully participate in the show of which you have been appointed the lead role. There will most definitely be days when you soooo badly want to sub in a supporting actor, but what if that’s the day you could have met the love of your life, or the day that you would have received that massive promotion, or the day that your child took his first steps? If you tend to sub in the supporting actor or actress, you will miss the show of your life, along with all of those surreal sunsets, epic paddle missions, and intimate connections.

So go ahead, open your invitation for today, because tomorrows’ invitation is not guaranteed. The only day you can ever accept your invitation is today. What is yoga? Yoga is skipping into the glistening way of today, with mind in hand and heart at helm.

Muchas Muchas Gracias mi amigos.

May this interpretation of yoga inspire and encourage you to decipher your very own. Living your yoga can only happen if you decide what yoga is for you! Your definition gets to morph and change as you do. I’m so appreciative of your open mind and heart and interest in all that is yoga.

Blessings,

Andrea Dawn