I feel its safe to say that many of us start to hit the Yoga mat for some kind of physical benefit. It doesn’t take us long to realize that something deeper starts to occur when we become consistent with our Yoga practice. It’s not the stretching that keeps us coming back for more… it’s more like an inner calling…. a persistent push and pull. As if the mat becomes somewhat of a magnet and we are drawn in and away by its powerful charge.

It doesn’t take us long, with a little commitment to start to feel the benefits of Yoga. It’s a practice that will start to flow from your mat and into your life.

Yoga is not exercise and if this is the way we feel about it, we will either be drawn in a different direction or the healing benefits will be profound. We choose which path to walk.

We start to notice how we feel after a Yoga class. A sense of clarity. A tad of confidence. A deeper trust that everything is perfectly imperfect how it is.

Then… We go back out there into the real world and are tested. Work deadlines, family, mundane chores and the rising and falling emotions that come with all of this. How to maintain that sense of calm, which arises when and after we practice Yoga?

Well, we practice. We practice, practice, practice. This is why it’s called a Yoga Practice. We nut out and feel into how we can merge Yoga and life.

In our uniquely human capacity of connect movement with breath and spiritual meaning, yoga is born. ~ Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa

When I started doing my Teacher Training many years ago, this is when it all started to pull together. I acquired a deeper understanding of the fact that the Yoga Asana (postures) which we do in a Yoga class are a small part of the practice.

For many of us, the Asana Practice is the gateway to the incredible life changes Yoga will bring to us with a little persistence. I started to realize that this awareness, mindfulness & conscious breathing that I practiced on the Yoga mat was actually a hell of a lot more important to practice out there in the real world.

The mat creates that safe space for us to REALLY practice what that feels like in our body to be aware and mindful so we can recognize clearly when we are NOT practicing out there in the real world, where it counts.

If we practice all of this Asana but still head out into the world and are mean and judgmental towards people, what is the point? I love this quote by Cameron Shayne:

Just because you can do a handstand, it doesn’t mean you’re not a dick.

Its too easy to go and do your Yoga Practice in the Yoga room and focus on becoming really good at the poses. In a time and place where Yoga (and social media) is pretty cool, our focus can easily become one of how ‘advanced’ we are (or are not) in these postures. We forget to check into how we actually feel.

I’m speaking from experience here…

I don’t think its unusual for us Yogis to have been through that stage where Asana is the be and end all of Yoga. We think the magic will happen when we get to 4^th series in Ashtanga or nail Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm stand).

You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state. ~Sharon Gannon

For many, the magic will usually happen when we slow down. Or even (for myself especially) stop. Stop with the ladder climbing of trying to be somewhere else. To try to become better and be better at whatever it is were trying to achieve. This can become another form of fighting and I have been amazed and humbled by observing the effects this simple (but often challenging) change has had on my life and on many of my student’s lives.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Asana is important. I still practice Asana very regularly but the focus has come away from handstands, arm balances, drop backs and getting better and more advanced, thinking it was going to get me closer to feeling better.

What made me feel better was striping everything back. My practice and my business were fairly hard to strip back in this world where constantly going bigger and better is at the forefront of the mind. Social media helps us get wrapped right up in trying to cultivate a perfection, which simply doesn’t exist.

The changes to my health and my relationships since I stripped everything back and took a ‘less is more’ mentality have been hard to believe. Well, not really actually.

It’s quite simple.

Do less. Be more.

You may think that this is no way to pay a mortgage off or feed all of the kids.

It’s a balance. Most of us don’t know how to stop. THIS is what gets us into trouble. Eventually, it makes us sick. Which will get in the way and usually cost a lot.

We must learn how to pause so life can catch up. When we pause, it gives us time to rest and receive. Abundance flows to those who take action in flow, without fighting for it or trying really hard.

This is Yoga. Yoga is the way we live our life. It’s the way we feel and the connection we have to ourselves which aids the connection we have to others. Its learning how to love ourselves FULLY so we can love and support those around us. Yoga is all of this and more.

It’s a practice that, for most of us starts in the Yoga studio, on the Yoga mat. This is not where it ends.

In fact, real Yoga starts when we roll up our Yoga mat and walk out of the studio and into the world.

Darci Cole Ensor
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