Come As You Are

I was visiting my mom some number of years ago. I woke up early and went into the living room to practice yoga. While I was moving through poses and stretching, my mom woke up and came downstairs. She took a look at me and said, “Oh honey… you are so tightly wound” (she didn’t mean physically) “that all the yoga in the world isn’t going to help you.”

Aren’t moms the best at keeping it real?! God, I love that woman!

So, naturally, I became a yoga teacher.

I think there are people who teach yoga because this stuff comes naturally to and is easy for them. They must have grown up in an ashram with yogi zen parents who read them Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra as a bedtime story every night or something. I don’t know. And then there are people like me who become yoga teachers because we’re the ones who need the most practice. We’re the ones who need to hear these messages played on repeat, and so we’ve come up with this really clever way to be surrounded by and confronted with the teachings and practices at every turn.

I share this to remind us all that there is absolutely no preparation needed in order to practice yoga; there are no prerequisites required. Your yoga practice meets you right where you are — physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically, and spiritually day in and day out. Not only does it meet you there, but it welcomes you exactly as you are. Additionally, yoga has no expectation of your growth pattern, trajectory, or timeline. It’s not like, “Really?! You were here yesterday and now you’re way back there again today?!” That’s not yoga speaking, that’s some other part of you.

We are so accustomed to evaluating our performances in all aspects of life — determining whether we’ve done a good job or a bad job, in essence if we are good or bad. Am I being a good wife? Mother? Daughter? Friend? Did I meet my boss’s expectations? Was that client satisfied? Am I even doing my job right? What about this dinner I’m making right now — is anyone going to like it? Is it healthy enough? It is never-ending!

Here’s some relief: You cannot do a bad job at yoga. In fact, according to Sharon Gannon, you can’t even do yoga.

“You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state.” — Sharon Gannon

You might try this the next time you meditate:

Close your eyes, and turn your attention inward. Arrive as you are. Welcome yourself, your whole self, as you are — the parts you consider “good” as well as the parts you’ve deemed “bad,” the likable and unlikable, the light and dark, the comfortable and uncomfortable — all of you.

Place your awareness on your body and take inventory.

Place your awareness on your mind and take inventory.

Start where you are. Breathe. Notice your breath and the sensations of breathing.

Where are you holding your stories? The stories of the day? The year? The past 20, 40, 60 years? Maybe even from generations past?

Can you breathe into those places? Can you use your breath gently, as carrier of compassion and love to those parts that need it most right now? Can you breathe into those places, uncovering some space and inviting some fresh movement?

Repeat again and again and again… day after day. That’s the practice. Release expectation along the way. It would be bizarre and quite frankly impossible (for better or worse) to have the same experience each time. Just keep showing up and remember that you cannot do a bad job at yoga.