My friend Bob is a serious blogger.  He’s also one of my yoga students, and a gin connoisseur.  Last week Bob sent me an email, apologizing for missing yoga class.  He’d had a successful business meeting earlier that afternoon, which transitioned into a pleasant evening having drinks with his clients.  “That’s okay.” I wrote back, “Yoga is no match for a good gin and tonic.”

Bob is a supporter of my writing and has been trying for months to get me to start blogging.  When I sent him that email I jokingly added, “Hey, there’s my first blog title!”  And so it is.  And so it should be, because it is a perfect metaphor for integrating yoga into life…and vice-versa.

Yoga and life have a symbiotic, accepting, forgiving, mutually-nourishing relationship.  Yoga accepts us wherever, whoever, and however we are each day, and offers us support for getting where we want to be.  At the same time, life allows yoga to weave itself into our daily thoughts and actions; giving us focus, strength, peace, forgiveness, and clarity in all situations.

We know clearly and without question that if we ever need to miss a class, yoga always welcomes us back without judgment.  We also know that if our Revolved Triangle pose isn’t quite as revolved as it was yesterday, yoga accepts us without judgment.  It’s just like the unconditional love of a dog.  Or a parent who never says, “I told you so.”

This is exactly why I have chosen yoga as my personal exercise practice.  Yoga’s forgiving, accepting, non-judgmental nature is exactly the way I try to live my life.  It’s how I “take yoga off the mat” and into the rest of the world.  When you practice yoga long enough, you start to realize that it has woven together with your life into an inseparable fabric.  It’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

So, cheers…here’s to yoga, life, and blogging!