Flexing My Gratitude Muscle

     While teaching yoga a few weeks ago I found myself wandering through the rows of mats making corrections here and there when I thought, “are these students aware of what an amazing thing they've stumbled onto?” I certainly wasn't conscious in the beginning of what a profound difference my yoga practice would mean to my life. Learning the philosophy behind the practice has made me acutely cognizant of my behavior both on and off my mat. I now know my yoga practice is a gift, a life altering gift that I'm grateful for every day. My people, my family of origin, were poor, uneducated, and the only way they knew to find spirituality was through a Sunday sermon filled with hand raising capitulation and loud choruses of Hallelujah. Times have changed, but most of them are still scraping by and the idea of the time, let alone the money, it takes to have a yoga practice would be considered a luxury. Don't get me wrong, I know that you can spread out a towel on your living room floor and practice yoga in your pajamas (no Lululemon required), but when you are a single mom, working two jobs, the reality is there is just not enough time in the day. How many of us take this for granted? I certainly did. I thought the way to happiness was more of everything when I began my adult life; a nice house with matchy-matchy furniture, an expensive car, all the trappings that showed the world I had arrived. Then I found yoga and became “enlightened.” I transcended that lowly behavior, yet my stealthy humaness was lurking in the shadows. My wants became subtler; more advanced asana, outrageously expensive yoga accessories, then, again, “enlightenment.” I want to stop chasing (fill in the blank here) and to just Be. Grateful, happy to have a pulse. Not an easy state to achieve in our modern world, but I'm trying.

     If you haven't guessed, gratitude seems to be a reccurring theme in my life lately. I've found my personal yoga practice directly correlates to my happiness meter and I've been consistently rolling out my mat again. I've been making it a point to attend many different instructors and styles, but I'm especially enjoying Dylan Werner's (see photo) class at Inner Evolution right now. This is a big deal for me because his class is way out of my comfort zone. I jokingly call this class the “kick your ass hour”, but I'm having a blast learning from this very strong yogi. At the end of class on Friday night we were guided into sukhasana (easy cross-legged pose) then he asked us to take a moment in gratitude (there it is again). I felt an easy smile arise on my face, humbled by the strength and health of my body and grateful for all that I'm learning from this young yoga teacher. I've been looking at gratitude like a muscle that can be strengthened and was pleased to sense it engage at the end of this class of its own free will. I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but Norman Vincent Peale was right when he said, “change your thoughts and you change the world.” Man, am I grateful for my world. Wrinkles, age spots, poochy belly and all. Let's just see if I can keep it up.