"Wow, you practice for two hours a day?! That's dedicated." She said with elevated disbelief and slight confusion as to how one could manage such a thing.
    I replied, "Yoga has completely changed my life, and when something gives you so much, any amount of time is so little in comparison."
    To which she questioned, "I don't mean to be skeptical, but exactly what benefits have you actually seen from doing yoga?"
    At that moment I realized that I hadn't verbally expressed this in a while, and I had this nearly overwhelming appreciation for being asked the question. I'm always grateful to the Universe for opportunities to experience and express a sense of gratitude, and to do so directly with someone is even more amazing because it gives me the opportunity to share my love and my discovery with others, occasionally opening up the possibility for others to experience their own amazing transformation through yoga.
    The next morning, I was still living in that question and wanted to share my ruminations with all of you.
    It's absolutely the truth. Yoga has completely transformed my life, and continues to be this limitless gift of self and Self discovery for which I am eternally grateful.
    I have not been sick once since I started a six-day-per-week yoga practice. I used to get at least the occasional cold or sinus infection. And since I've had this consistent practice, and combined it with using a neti pot, I have been absolutely physically healthy. One reason is that I am so much more in tune with my body. When the body feels tired, I'm actually able to hear that and listen to it and respond appropriately instead of pushing through to meet a deadline or satisfy some other worldly sense of obligation. Through yoga I have learned that my body is not only my best friend, but also my best teacher, and the only one that will be with me my entire life.
    I would say that pre-yoga, I was often pretty stressed out, definitely easily excitable, very controlling and very impatient. Though I do not profess to be entirely stress free, it somehow flows off of me like water off a ducks back. Though I still get very elated and feel so light that I actually wonder if I'm going to lift off of the ground (which I experienced so many times in the Sun Salutations immediately after making the decision to move to Cape Town, and once we arrived), my moods do not oscillate between such extremes of pleasure and pain. And, if yoga has taught me anything it's to simply go with the flow and breathe. I am not in control of anything; I've realized that the more I can recognize this the easier it is to experience equanimity, peace, and contentment with whatever the present moment offers, be it expected or unexpected.
    Yoga gives me the tools to discover what truly makes me happy and the courage to arrange my life accordingly. If it hadn't been for yoga, I honestly wonder if I would have been able to leave California and move to Cape Town. Perhaps, but it would have been so much more difficult.
    Yoga has taught me that everything is all good all the time. Even when it isn't, is still is. Even when there is something that I want to change - that in and of itself is all good, as is the present condition as well as the unknown future condition. Therefore, nothing is ever worth worrying about. In fact just today I realized that the only thing that can alleviating worrying is the decision to stop worrying. Once the conditions about which one worried improve, one can find innumerable reasons or alternate conditions about which to continue worrying, thus it is simply the decision to change one's perspective that changes the situation.
    Yoga continues to teach me about balance. Currently my practice is filled with a sense of understanding the balance between gentleness and strength, discipline and nurturing, growth and acceptance. So many concepts that are so integral to the teachings and experience of yoga have confused me: "How am I supposed to work on building and stretching muscle, but remain gentle and relaxed? How am I supposed to focus my mind on breath, bandhas, drishti, the feeling body, and my intention, but then also relax and just let things flow?? How am I supposed to both want to grow, develop, and progress, and yet practice happiness and contentment with where I am right now???" I continually struggled with these seeming dualities until it gradually dawned on me that the answer is not either/or; the answer is yes/and, always both. This is where the balance comes in. There is no one thing on which to focus. Simultaneously, everything and nothing is important.
    Most of all, yoga has taught me about love. That it really is okay to love everything and everyone. That I don't need to be concerned about what people will think or how they will react. That love is the most important gift that I have to offer, one of the biggest reasons why I am here on this Earth. That we are all loved unconditionally, and that it's only a matter of time before we realize that all we are are conduits of that love.

    There are so many more ways in which yoga continually affects and improves my life. I am truly grateful for all of the masters who have passed this practice down through the years, for all of the teachers who have helped me uncover my true self, and for all of the students who continue to also be my teachers.

I look forward to continuing to learn and grow with all of you.

Namaste,
Sarah

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