Yoga's Gift of Body Awareness

Two months since I've blogged! Well, yoga graduation was yesterday -- a beautiful ceremony and celebration of six intense months of learning, opening, feeling, reaching, and, yes, transforming -- hence, my blog cooling off on the backburner.

While wrapping the six months, I was asked "If you could only teach students one thing about yoga, what would it be?

Body awareness. From the wonderful feeling of the large muscles of the hamstrings opening during downward dog to the subtlest cues of “that’s enough” during another pose or stretch, yoga teaches body awareness like no other. I believe that if we truly listened to the body’s need for rest, play, movement, food, work, prayer, breath, etc., we’d all lead less stressful and more joyful lives. While it’s initially fun to learn where the major muscles are located and fire them up through intense heat-building poses, it’s even more delightful to notice the subtle-yet-powerful presence of breathwork, restful poses or prayer and meditation. Like the saying “off the mat, into the world”, the body awareness one gains from yoga truly applies to all areas of life.

I'm forever grateful for all my teachers.

Namaste