What is this? Is it the perfect handstand? A perfectly still mind? Is it the perfect om?
Perfection is different for each person. Just as success is different. Yoga by definition is the union of body, breath and mind. What if my handstand is perfect, I have a still mind and the perfect om and then I treat people around me with disrespect and my words are coarse? I am doing everything right from a yogic standpoint but I treat people without kindness. It’s one thing to practice yoga and another to live it and to embody yoga.
To me yoga is about non-violence and what happens out of the yoga studio and off the mat. Yoga is about respectful intention. The intention to serve my body and mind better through unity and connection, and to serve the people around me better and to come from a place of love. Does this mean I get it right 100% of the time? That I don’t slip and I don’t fall and I don’t get angry and don’t live fully as I wish? I definitely don’t get it right all the time. Wouldn’t that be great to get 100/100…100% of the time. But, I am human. I am fallible.
However, the intention is there and I aim to choose my words rather than let them come tumbling out of my mouth and stinging the people around me. It’s about rolling out my mat and committing to practice in the studio. Just as it is about rolling up my yoga mat, walking out of the yoga studio and continuing to practice yoga in my thoughts, actions and words.
Here is to intention. The intention to act with love to ourselves and to others and to progress. Because there is perfection in progress and daily action towards intention.
Pic: Taken in mother country PNG. Island in the distance is called Yule Island. Delena village, Kairuku is 2 hours from Port Moresby, PNG