Day 22 of IDJSIJ Challenge – You Do Not Need To Do Yoga

Well, if THAT isn’t the dumbest, least effective marketing technique by a yoga teacher I’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is. Still, it’s a true story.



I’ve spent three whole weeks now writing about quieting the body and mind, relaxing into the present moment, and releasing our very human need to constantly be somebody and do something. To do that, I’ve offered various classical yoga techniques like breathwork, meditation, physical poses, and being the observer of our own emotional entanglements. I offered those because yoga practices are the framework for how I live my life, and I can see everything I’ve gained from them. I certainly will continue to share and teach those experiences for all my days. But I don’t need to do that, and neither do you.



If you’re a journal person or a list maker, get a paper and pen. If not, just sit and remember where you were and what you were doing when you felt like your energy reserves were being refilled. Maybe you were outside enjoying nature, on a vacation with friends, creating art, or on a run. Maybe you were presenting at work, refinishing furniture, or sitting alone while sipping coffee on your deck in summer. Find the activities and places in your daily life that fill you with peace, joy, gratitude and empowerment. Practice staying with that elevated feeling, and avoid getting distracted by the chattering thoughts. Do more of those fulfilling activities and less of the stuff that makes you feel drained, exhausted, overwhelmed, and resentful.



You don’t have to sit on a mat, chant a mantra, observe your breath, or put your body into a certain shape to do yoga. After all, the purpose of doing all those steps in a practice is to get to the part when you can connect to the place within of no-mind and no-body. When you find yourself completely submerged in the present moment, you are doing yoga. When you find harmony in the body, breath, and mind, you are doing yoga. When you’re engaging in your passions and finding the joyful experience of expressing your true nature with no concern for the result, you are doing yoga. When you connect to your sense of the eternal within, you connect to all beings everywhere, and you are doing yoga.

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