I recently came across an article that talked about how you’re not a yogi if you don’t have a home practice.
And it made me think:
Although I sometimes consider and call myself a yogi, a committed one if you will, I don’t always have a home practice.
To be honest, there have been times in my life when I have gone without practicing for days and even weeks.
I have felt guilty and mortified.
But of what?
Being a yogi doesn’t mean that you do Asana practice (Postures) every day at a studio or at the comfort of your own home.
Being a yogi doesn’t mean that you are able to stand on your head or your hands, or put your legs behind your head.
A yoga mat slung on your shoulder doesn’t make you a yogi and neither does wearing branded stretchy yoga pants.
Being a yogi is not a posture you get into or something you wear.
Being a yogi and doing yoga is a state of mind and a lifestyle.
And the undeniable fact is that yoga and being a yogi are much more than the fancy stuff that we see on Facebook and magazines.
To mention just a few, for me being a yogi entails:
- Being loving and friendly towards everything that lives
- Living and moving with compassion on and off the mat
- Being kind with your words, your thoughts and your actions
- Seeing and respecting all that it’s divine within yourself and others
- Watching your mouth, your body and your mind.
Being a yogi means feeling, breathing and living your life inspired by the eight-limbed path of yoga.
Thus I do yoga and I am a yogi too when I perform small acts of kindness, when I watch what I eat to protect my body and the environment, when I watch my thoughts and my words to honor nonviolence, when I walk in nature and I’m able to feel and recognize that I am one with everything.
I do yoga and I am a yogi when I am humble, when I share, when I give expecting nothing in return, when I speak with honesty, when I offer a gentle smile to a loved one or a stranger, when I spread peace and love wherever I go whether I stretch or not.
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