I meant to post this on International Yoga Day, last weekend, but got a little late!
Yoga
I’ve been practicing yoga since the last 3 years.
I’m still not exactly sure why but yoga is something very personal to me. It’s not physical for me, it works on my mind. It was there for me during one of the toughest periods of my life and it’s still here for me, always, no judgment, no questions asked
I still remember the day when I first started learning yoga. It was 2016 at a fancy yoga studio in Chicago, I used to feel competitive. I wanted to get all the poses right, I wanted to stretch myself to the maximum. I wanted to do the crow and the bridge and the vrikshaasan, and the bhujangaasana (when all I could really do is shavaasan ) …
I thought, for yoga to ‘work’ for me, I needed to excel at every pose, every aasan. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth, you know.
Yoga is not for losing weight or becoming ‘healthy’ or fit or even for becoming flexible. Yoga is to FEEL. feel everything around me and feel nothing around me. It’s such a beautiful feeling. I can feel every single thought running through my mind and I can also feel the nothingness around me.
This may sound spiritual, but it’s not really. When I close my eyes and hold an aasan, i feel every thought rushing at me. I also end up in tears as all these thoughts leave me. At the end of a good practice, I’m almost always in tears, with the feeling of nothingness. A blank canvas. A new start.
Yes, yoga does leave me in tears so often.
That sweet orgasmic release as I connect with every thought and fiber of my mind and body. It is real. It is not hyped up.
Yoga finally ‘worked’ for me when I let go. Let go of the competition, the desire to excel at it, the desire to achieve something through yoga, the desire to ‘learn’ yoga, the desire to make it work!!
And when all of that left, suddenly, I could see the beauty in my own body, my many muscles and tissues that need my love and attention.
I could see that the only thing that matters, from all of my thoughts and worries and concerns, all that matters is to smile from my heart.
If I can’t smile and laugh truly, in this very moment, from my heart, then nothing else is worth anything.
When the tears wash away the million thoughts, I’m left brand new. To start afresh. To a new hour, to a new day and a new desire … to smile 
I wouldn’t advice or recommend anyone to practice Yoga. It is a very personal thing that YOU would go to, at your own time, in your own world
But when you do, make sure to FEEL every emotion, every thought that comes to you, every tissue and cell of your body .
Watch the video till the end for the SMILE, the only reason for which I practice yoga
