Friends. Students and teachers of yoga, anyone with a practice, or anyone thinking about beginning one. You. There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding about the practice of yoga. I hear it a lot, in nearly every style I've encountered. So before we go any further, I think we should get one thing crystal clear.
Yoga will not save your life.
In whatever way you may feel lost or in need, yoga will not save you. Despite what you may hear from friends and family and colleagues who practice, yoga will not pull you out of sadness or give you a greater appreciation for the beauty of the world. Yoga will not make you healthier. Yoga will not make you stronger or more balanced. Yoga will not improve your breathing, center your mind, or bring you peace. Yoga will not connect you with positive, kind, compassionate people. I promise you this.
There is no teacher who can save you, either. No master, no guru, no wise old man to hold your hand and walk you through the darkness. There is no pose to reform your body. There is no sequence, no flow that will bring you to balance and health. I promise you, my friend, yoga will not save your life.
You will.
You will travel on the way. You will go to all of those places, practice those poses and that sequence. You will explore the power and potential of your own body, and wake up your heart in the process. You will find your own strength. You will feel the deep, transformative, forgotten power of your own breath. You will sit with those teachers and listen to them and learn and you will gain a new perspective on what it means to be a living being in a world of change. You will open your own mind. You will hear the big questions, and ask them of yourself.
You will make this discovery. And when you do it will leave you crying unstoppably on a borrowed mat in a semi-public space surrounded by people you don’t really know, but who very much understand what you’re going through. People who know that just now you’ve touched something real inside and you can’t figure out whether to be ecstatic or terrified by its magnitude. You will learn what it’s like to be humbled by your own potential, alive and awake and alone.
There will be gratitude, and rightfully so. You will want to thank everyone who ever spoke to you about the way, every teacher who ever reminded you to breathe, every student who practiced next to you and joined you in silence. You will be inspired and challenged by others and you will share the experience with incredible people. That’s all good. It’s all important. You could not have done it without them. Be grateful and give thanks.
But remember, it’s just you. When you are at the bottom of a pit, only you can climb the rope.
And you will. You will realize it is your own courage that keeps you going, your strength that supports you, your wisdom that guides you. Your humility that asks for help. All of the teachers and doctors and books and classes and methods and food and medicine are just instruments, you must choose them. In the end you make the journey yourself, breathing, saving the only life you can.