Yoga is Skill in Action

_Yoga is skill in Action


The New Year is a time of new beginnings, a time for reflection, review and re-prioritization as we chart our course for the upcoming year.  I have been re-reading the Bhagavad Gita and am choosing this text for my teaching theme for Winter 2013. The following quotes from the text strike me as powerful reminders for the upcoming year.

“Yoga is skill in action.”

The word yoga comes from yuj, to yoke, to unite, to connect.  Yoga is to yoke your mind, body and heart, to connect to the deepest truth of who you ultimately are. Yoga also is action, practices that you do both on the mat and off the mat.  When you establish a clear connection with your deepest core and act from that place, that is yoga, skill in action.

So, now that it is now 2013, how are you choosing to act and what are your actions?  How are you consciously yoking your mind, body, and heart together?  With what care and attention are acting?  What is important to you?  What actions are you choosing to take?  What actions are you choosing not to take?  For even in-action is a form of action.

“No one, for even an instant, can exist without acting.”

Everything you do or don’t do is an action, and every action begets other actions and consequences.  Therefore, choose be present. Prioritize what is important.  Connect to yourself and to others. Act with care whether you are preparing a meal, reading to a child, responding to an email or practicing asana.  When you are connected to your true self, then your actions are skillful, precise, exactly what is needed in any situation.

When you find you have not acted skillfully, there is no need to reprimand yourself. Simply return to the practices and tools that help you come back to yourself once again. Pause, soften, breathe. Come back to your breath again.  This is yoga, the repetition of practices that yoke, elevate and liberate.   Re-set yourself and begin again. Ahhh... new breath... new year!