Yoga is a way to say Yes.

I woke up frazzled.

While still in my bed, I could feel the chaos building in my mind: half fragments of sentences, not-quite-completed-thoughts, check-lists of things I definitely should do today, urgently, but that now, 4 hours later, have subsided into oblivion. I literally don’t even remember what was so terribly important.

Between then and now, I obviously did some yoga. But also, and more importantly, I paid attention to my breathing, wiped my mind clear, and slowed down everything. After so many years of a semi-daily practice, I am still surprised that this actually works.

What do you mean, I just have to breathe to feel better? Breathing is basically living, isn’t it? Is it really that immediate?

Yes, is the answer. Yes, yes, and yes.

Yoga is not a panacea, neither the breath-work, nor the physical practice, nor the meditation or deep focus.

But it is a way to return to the body with optimism and presence. It is a way to say yes.

Or, as Kaylin Haught so beautifully wrote:

GOD SAYS YES TO ME

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don’t paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I’m telling you is
Yes Yes Yes