Yoga=Happiness

Well, it does for me, anyway.  And being a natural skeptic, I have been wondering a lot lately about why I feel so happy when I practice, and less so when I slack off for a few days.

I think I have it figured out.  Yoga –at its best and most basic–changes consciousness.  It changes how you think, how you perceive your world and your interactions with people, nature, everything. 

When you change how you think, and how you react, it can also impact–in a positive way–how your body’s chemistry functions, in a very good way.  Delight, which is a traditional Vedic concept, simply means being present in the essence of everything that exists.  In other words, enjoying every experience, every day-being happy.   

Yoga helps you understand and embrace being happy with what you are, not what you have. Now for me, this concept took a while to kick in.  I was the traditional American consumer, looking for the answer in every shampoo bottle (recovering Material Girl here), on every clothing rack, in every magazine.  I liked conspicuous consumption.  In fact, I raised it to an art form.  Until one day, it just wasn’t enough.  It wasn’t changing anything. Well, except my bank balance.

That’s when I began looking inside for the answers.  I began with the more traditional formulas, like attending mass each week, getting healthier, changing my job.  But still, not a lot of change occurred inside of me spiritually, where I really wanted to make a change.

Then a friend–who I will be thankful to forever–pushed me to try a yoga class.  She knew I had been experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety, even physical pain, and thought this might be a good way for me to find some relief.

I will never be able to thank her enough (thank you, Shannon).

Taking on yoga and incorporating it into my everyday life has made my life not so every day.  I now see everything.  I embrace my emotions, understand them, even celebrate them.  I feel like I am really in tune, and not a moment passes that I am not so completely grateful for this life I have been given.  I enjoy every day I am here. 

The most important lesson of all has been this–you have to nurture happiness.  Yoga planted the right seeds for me, and helped them grow.  Sprinkle a little of it on your soul and you’ll be amazed at what might happen. 

As always, peace.

That’s