On the other day, I asked my students what do they thought the goal of Ashtanga Yoga was. What do you think? Every day, you unfold your mat, you do the same set of postures and then you carry on with your daily life. What is it teaching you? Why do we do this? Well, it is certainly not just making you physically stronger and more flexible!

It is teaching you Patience and Faith. Every time you surrender to the practice, something changes inside you, not just physically, but at a much deeper level. Every time you practice, and you see your practice improving, it gives you confidence and faith to carry on. However, other times you practice and it does not go so well, but that teaches you to be patient.

And then with patience, and faith comes Courage. Practicing new challenging postures takes courage. But when we do them, again something at a deeper level clicks and tells you “hang on; I have the courage to do what needs to be done”.

And when the time comes, courage helps you to do what you need to do to be happier and find your inner peace. Finding inner peace is like finding a good restaurant, you walk that extra mile to have that delicious dish, right?! The same for Peace. Once you find that inner peace, you will want it all the time, and you will get rid of what no longer is serving you!

So the Ashtanga Yoga practice is basically giving us the transferable skills to have a more balanced and peaceful life.

Keep practicing everyone!

Namaste.