Some of the most beautiful places are golf courses

I've been making a new friend. She's a bit of a gym rat (like me), a decade older than me, and loves football. We liked each other instantly. She also golfs. She discovered I teach yoga. Telling someone you are a yoga teacher is a bit like telling someone you are a pastor. It's not the first thing you introduce strangers to as it seems everyone immediately feels shame that they either don't attend church or they don't "do yoga." My friend begins to explain she simply can't hold postures and be still, that it's much too hard for her. I so always appreciate honesty, and holding stillness is hard for most of us. I tried to explain that yoga doesn't have to be on a mat and in a yoga class and that her golf could very well be her beautiful yoga. (I mean, the beauty alone of these courses!) I'm pretty sure I had yet to finish my explanation on that when she enthusiastically protested. "Golf is so competitive and so intense." She began schooling me in how there couldn't be a greater distance between what yoga is and golf is not. "Yoga was the exact opposite of golf," I believe was her closing statement.
Ummm.
No.
But, for now ;) her mindset makes her statement quite true.
And yes, I still want to be her friend. :)

It's not in what we do that determines whether we "do yoga." It's not even in holding yoga poses that determines doing yoga. Yoga is what happens in HOW we do what we do. Are we immersed in our moment? Are we able to collect our scattered senses and bring them into a focus on the thing happening in our present moment? Are we able to flow in and through change, allowing and accepting fluctuations and in notice of it all? Are we living integrated? Do our words line up with our actions and choices? Are we living with intention and purpose? Yoga in Sanskrit means 'union.' I guess from there, we get to define "our union."

Yoga isn't always just bliss and ease. It is fierce and fiery. Warrior 1, warrior 2, warrior 3 anyone? Lions breath and breath of fire! Utkatasana and plank! And yes, yoga can be your golf. I once had a yoga teacher who used to ask "are you living your yoga?" No matter what we do, it's how we do it that binds our whole selves to this incredible experience of living and our union with it. How fully are you experiencing your work, your play, your relationships, your life and your "union?" It's in that full integrated self, you're doing your yoga.

We fortify our union on the mat, our place of study and trial. We get strong and fierce and with strength, we know bliss.

Thanks for reading,

Jill