I was listening to an NPR interview with
Sarah Powers the other day. There was a lot to love in the discussion. There was one bit that really struck me. She described how we approach yoga in three stages. First we hear about it…we read a book, someone tells us about it. Then we contemplate it. I think that is when we begin to practice. We are “doing” yoga. The last step, she says, is when we pick it up as a tool and use it. What a brilliant description! I was “doing” yoga for years before I realized it was a tool for me to use. No one I ran into ever described it that way (or maybe I just couldn't hear it yet.) You practiced yoga in whatever way the person at the front of the room said was the way to practice. You contemplated their take on things. One teacher I said that he’d healed his back with yoga after an injury. Still there was no explanation. I wondered, “How did he do that?” I ran into teachers who said the most amazing things about the practice. I wondered, “How do they know that?”
Eventually, I had the good fortune to run into teachers who let me in on what seemed to be a secret until then. You pick up the tool of yoga by stepping on to your yoga mat and listening deeply, by letting yourself be guided your own innate wisdom
in addition to the wisdom of your teachers and the sages of the past. You learn to trust yourself.
That’s when I really learned to love yoga deeply. That’s when I knew this was a relationship that would last forever.
