All is Yoga

INSIDE AND OUT

It's been said many times that beauty is on the inside and out; it exists in darkness and in light, pain and pleasure, imprisonment and emancipation. Why then practice, literally do yoga, only indoors or outdoors? To elaborate:

Why only practice yoga on the inside of your body (physically embodying posture) but not outside (embodying purpose in action)? So we use this as a metaphor for the literal: Why only practice indoors and not outdoors in the elements?

Our natural instinct is to seek balance in life.
When we fall in love, we find someone who balances our excesses and deficiencies.
When we practice, we look to create balance in ourselves; this is how we benefit every relationship in our lives when we take the conscious step, the sacred step (or "vinyasa" in sanskrit), onto our mat.

This idea was born of a vacation...

A friend from Yoga Teacher Training recently visited me on vacation in Rhode Island. Beach yoga! We began practicing in the sand; a first for me. Using a new foundation for understanding such as sand created the opportunity to approach the practice with a whole new perspective and consideration.

Instead of grounding into a yoga mat, I was now gripping the Earth's shores with my hands. The ground isn't so stable; flat stable surface was created by man. The Earth has a softness to it. So to use the sand required a deeper awareness and attention, which actually allowed me to explore a posture that's more difficult for me. The result?

Holding handstand longer!

Maggie's backbend variation, and my handstand on Bonnet Shores Beach, RI

But alas, vacation ended. It's so easy to want to practice constantly with someone like Maggie around! When the time comes to roll out the mat and no one's around, aka my home practice, it's way harder.

BUT HERE'S THE AWESOME PART...

Maggie taught me to bring my physical practice everywhere; inside and out, just as we both believe yoga is a physical practice that takes place inside the body, as well as a way to live life outside of the postures.

giving Maggie's wheel a beachy adjustment

so the journey continues...

Inside

 and out ;)

For your consideration...

When you step on your mat, do nothing but create more love - so that when you step off your mat, you do nothing but create more love. <3 Namaste