The moment I remember to breathe and connect to what's real, connect to love, get grounded, get present, then everything has a way of sort of falling into place.
Yoga teaches you aim for the highest first, and the highest is always love. From there everything else will follow.
When we put gratitude first, what happens is we kind of shift the chemistry of the mind. We move from being acidic or egotistic to alkaline or divine.
Music is one of the sharpest blades that we have to cut through the thick entangled web of the external mind and lead us back into the silent cave of our own Heart.
When we're being grateful it means that we're acknowledging that life is a gift, that life is a blessing, that this body is only here for a short period of time and it really shifts the whole internal landscape of the mind and it puts things into perspective and it allows us to get our bearings. To get a firm footing in what's real, and then go from there.
The reality is that life, for all of us, is pretty stressful and we all need ways to cope.
Yoga is really the practice of seeing what's most important. Focusing on that first. Then it helps everything else sort of fall into alignment.
If we can change from that deeper place - for instance, if I am constantly going around telling myself and everybody that I'm a failure and I'm worthless, that's a reflection of the thoughts I'm having. The moment that I'm able to shift at the level of my mind and start seeing that I have something to offer, life is important, and I want to contribute, then that tiny subtle shift from the inside can have a profound affect on my external life.
My path, my life, my career has really been a journey from moving from, in a sense, darkness to light. From pain to joy through the experience of yoga and meditation. It's an ongoing adventure that's unfolding every day.
When I found yoga, I realized that I can direct my own mind through my yoga practice and meditation. I can actually create my own mood. That was a huge awakening for me.
Sound is a subtle form of speech and then more subtle than sound is silence and that's like the realm of being.
I don't really begrudge anyone who uses substances, I just feel that yoga is a more sustainable way to find peace because it's from the inside out.
For me, my yoga practice is like putting a one in front of a lot of zeros. Without my practice, everything quickly becomes chaotic.
The mind is a very intricate machine. It can store memories, past impressions, grudges, criticisms, judgments. It can hold a lot of stuff. In general, it's only really good at holding onto one thing at a time. Which is why, when we have a lot going on, we feel sort of stressed and we feel tension because the mind is busy trying to figure out what it should focus on first.
Sound is one of the best most powerful tools. All the ancient traditions confirm that in the beginning was the word. Sound sort of predates form.
That's what I've found through yoga: yoga helps us to sort of rewire the mind so that we can literally become more mindful of the conversation we're having on the back end, what we're telling ourselves.
