Ahhhhh! I did it! I woked up! (An expression that my niece exclaimed in the mornings when she was a toddler). I made it to early AM yoga! Since, I have been on a yoga vacation I made up that it will be easier for me to set my alarm to wake up and go straight to the first yoga class offered of the day to get back to it. What happens is although I have been waking up early naturally, I have no time concept and end up missing classes all day long and saying, “I’ll go to the later one” and now more than a week has gone by with me not attending class. It was quite nice to be on this vacation, the longest I have taken from my yoga practice in years. I was still active and I was still doing asanas throughout the day, but I was not able to put a practice together and be still in it. It was a little bit here, a little bit there. I didn’t really miss my practice. Maybe because in the past I really needed that designated 75 minutes (or so) to get me centered, to get me grounded, to open my heart, and connect to myself and the world around me. Now, I am living and breathing all of that and more with each moment of each day.

I also no longer think of a yoga class as my physical exercise for the day. Of course, like many of us that is how I got into yoga, as a way of fitness. I was hooked instantly and it did not take long for the power of yoga to change my life and my body. I gave up my gym membership and became a yogini. Yoga taught me so much about myself and soon yoga was with me on the mat and off, teaching me life lessons each day. Yoga let me truly accept myself and love myself as I am. Today I am different then yesterday and I am even different from one moment to the next. It taught me to use a beginners mind over and over again. It taught me to push past what I thought were my body’s limits and to stay with it, to keep breathing through physical pain and exertion. My yoga practice also taught me to listen to myself when I wanted to rest. Realizing that I need to rest or take a modified position is one of the biggest moments to me. To know that I am physically able to go into tripod headstand right now from crow, but to realize that I want to rest instead of pushing myself is as much a treat as telling myself I can’t do a pose and then trying anyways and doing it!

I may not have missed my practice while on my vacation from yoga, but you better believe that I did not want that class to end this morning and I am now sitting here in that yoga bliss thinking about going back to the noon class! The yoga bliss to me is feeling all of my neurons fully alive and activated. Feeling that my heart is so open it feels as if a rainbow is exploding from my chest. Feeling the openness in my joints and muscles as I glide like a ballerina from one place to the next. Oh yoga, I love you and what you are to me. I am grateful for you and all that you have taught me and continue to teach me.