the practice of yoga has one distinctive purpose:
to awaken our awareness of the highest goodness inside.
this is a universal inherency.
we listen to our breath to tap into this source;
this is the first small step towards an awakening of
our awareness of everything we think, do and say.

our breath is the clearest reflection/indicator of
how every experience reaches us inwardly.
in learning to observe our breath, we are consciously
viewing how we're processing our experiences.

for example, in practice:
we observe our breath is short and realize
we've gone too fast or too far in a pose.
instead of spending time berating ourselves for
being unable to do something the way we wished,
we respond by taking a breath, smiling~ and backing off.

a state of judgment towards ourselves is wasteful:
it takes us out of the observation and distracts us
from our next step towards clarity.

without judgment, we can gather information
about ourselves compassionately.
we are creating an inner correspondence
that emulates the way we'd speak to a dear friend:
allowing, insightful, clear.

practicing slower, more caring responses to
any moment is invaluable in every realm of our lives;
it's helping us to serve ourselves and the people
around us. how? when we see our own habits, tendencies
and fears, we can begin to understand what others experience
and be softer and slower in our interactions.

when we can stick to the observation of ourselves
and stop any judgment, we can do the same for others.
this is the way to the more caring day-to-day existence
we're all seeking. this is also the way to more
frequent glimpses of that inherent goodness we all share.

enjoy the cozy month of november.
elena, lynn and the staff of virayoga