Yoga Delicious

Third day of teacher training and my whole outlook is changing from an analytical standpoint to an embodying one. I mean, I thought I was embodying yoga, but now I don't think that I was approaching the text and relaying the message in the right way.  Maybe there is not a right or wrong way? In any case, my outlook has changed and the blog will commence as Yoga Delicious.

The name of this blog, Yoga Delicious comes from when one of my amazing teachers during my second day of yoga teacher training was pleased with the effort and concentration of our poses she would say, "delicious!" What a great way to explain yoga. It is delicious. You take it in, you taste it, you swallow and digest it, and then it changes you from the inside out. Just like food. Eat the right food, feel better. Ingest yoga, feel better. It's that simple, because your body will use the yoga you give it in the best way possible. No matter what, there are benefits. You may be wondering, isn't eating just eating, and yoga just yoga?

No, both are much more than that--you must introduce it and utilize it the best way possible. You can't just walk and eat food. You have to sit and enjoy it. Walking and eating a meal on the go, your body will get the same nutritional facts written on the package. But sitting and eating quietly, slowly taking bites of an amount of food that you have served yourself that is just enough, noticing the texture, tasting all the elements to every bite, swallowing, and allowing the food to move freely in your stomach and spread its energy through your body--now that's maximizing the nutritional benefit. It makes you appreciate food, eat until you are just full enough, and the vitamins and minerals that are listed on the package assimilate into the body, and the energy provided by all those things dieters count on to make them healthy are used to their advantage. I bet if you are a dieter and you've plateaued, you will start losing weight again if you take your time to enjoy it.

That's how we need to use yoga. Yoga provides many benefits for the body--stretching, strengthening, relaxing, invigorating. Many people go for only that. Yoga also provides many benefits for the mind--restfulness, calmness, clarity, energy, control. Some people go for that, but maybe only half. The final part that most people often ignore is the spiritual part. In addition to mind and body, yoga is spiritual. To those who can surrender and release the body, use mindful technique without worry of physically executing postures perfectly, listen to their teacher and their bodies, accept the union that yoga brings about the polar energies in the body, ingest and release the life force breathed in and out, they are getting the maximum benefit of yoga. And that's just in a class. Imagine yoga as a way of life, the way it was intended to be 5,000 years ago, applied to the way we live our lives today. The previous 4 blog entries addressed just that...4 easy ways to insert yoga in your life through friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard for the wicked.

Observe with the senses, ingest information and qualities, make the best choices according to your body, notice the change, and reflect to improve. Food and yoga are delicious.