Health is the greatest wealth; the greatest happiness is peace.

–Yogi Hari

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No excuses.

The body remembers. It does not lie. It will tell your story even when you do not:  the teeth straightened by braces, the crinkle of past smiles around your eyes and there too the shadows of lingering heartache, the first two fingers on your right hand yellowed from years holding a cigarette, the slant of your shoulders when you crack a particularly funny joke, a hint of grey roots beneath the dye job, the shuffle in your gait when you’re lost in thought. The faint scar above your knee marks the day you slipped when climbing a fence. The months spent carrying your child are recorded in tiger stripes across your belly. The years you spent fighting injustice show up in the way you dance.  Your habit of grasping and holding on for dear life is audible in your breath.  It’s all there – ingrained in the cell, remembered in the muscle, written in the skin.

Did you know you’ve always been beautiful?

Acknowledge yourself.

Listen to your body.

Cherish your temple.

You are a divine work of art crafted in love and situated in this time and place for a reason. Live your bliss.

The physical practice of yoga (i.e., hatha yoga) refines and purifies every system in the body – from the circulatory to urinary systems.  It is a moving meditation. It is a metaphor for the posturing, posing, and transitioning we make as we travel through life.  You can struggle and fight your way through it or relax, witness, and celebrate the dance.

Breathe in. Stretch. Create space that wasn’t there before. In that space lies the potential for greater growth and movement.

Seek alignment in your posture. Align the words of your story with the one your body tells. Allow its beauty to shine.

Breathe out. Let go. Surrender to what is.