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Yesterday, I received my copy of Tara Stiles’ new book Yoga Cures and am excited to start reading it! Tara is a yogi in New York who has a no-nonsense approach to yoga. While reading last night, I stumbled upon this great nugget of inspiration:

            “What do you really have to know to get started?

            Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.”

When you get rid of all the shenanigans that surrounds yoga today, whether it be a brand/style of yoga, a mat, how you chant, or how fancy your pants are, “Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.” is truly is what it’s about. Once you are able to simply focus on the breath, the rest will follow. When you create the space in your body for your breath, you may find that your posture improves and the poses that once seemed impossible become possible.

Which also means, that if you are able to mindfully take a breath right now, as you are reading this post, you are already doing yoga. You didn’t even have to take your shoes off!

This is the beauty of yoga. Once you become aware, you have it with you always; standing in lines, driving, at work and everything and anything in between. The point of yoga isn’t to stand on your head, but to discover who the real you is. When we take the time in our practice to notice how we feel in our body, how our mind reacts to certain postures/exercises etc, we learn about our reactions and feelings off of the mat. Just as a baseball player spends hours upon hours in the batting cages to perfect his swing (side note: YAY its opening day! Dodger dogs here I come!), you too must practice being the best you that you can be. Because we don’t exist as individuals in the universe, we are all in this together, and might as well make the most of it.

So take 1 minute today to do some yoga. All it takes is an inhale, exhale, and repeat. 

Get your own copy of Tara Stiles’ Yoga Cures on Amazon.com.