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Each week, the editors at Yoga Journal compile moments—sometimes mind-bending, sometimes simple—that remind us yoga is, in fact, everywhere.
MOVE
We recently happened upon a simple hack for Chair Pose that we’d never considered before. Although it doesn’t make the posture any easier, it does make it eminently more tolerable and even more strengthening. (For those new to yoga, Chair Pose is something of the common denominator of yoga, bringing intensity to students as well as the teachers who listen to them groan about it.)
LISTEN
We can’t stop replaying the track “Practice Makes Progress” in our heads and our devices. The song, from the recently released album Sound Patterns by MC YOGI and composer John Pattern, functions as a mantra of sorts and will no doubt bring even more meaning and mindfulness to your practice or playlist.
ALIGN
CONSIDER
In an article published in The Atlantic early this week, writer Yasmin Tayag experiences something of an identity crisis as she struggles to choose among “too many ways to exercise,” yoga among them. Her overwhelm, which relates to common perceptions around stereotypes, was that what you do influences who you become. In Tayag’s words, it’s a “life imitating exercise” thing.
Yet with yoga, that’s entirely the point. How we show up on our mat directly influences how we show up to life. Perhaps we could instead appreciate the privilege inherent in choosing who we want to be even as we tune out the noise of what anyone else might assume us to be.
