The Midway

When life gets messy, and my mind begins to feel agitated and pulled in many directions, I remember an analogy my teacher Guruji one gave in one of the conferences in Mysore. He said “life is uncertain. Sometimes you are up, sometimes you are down. In those two stages- up and down- how do you stay stable? Like a carousel with horses. One goes up, one goes down. Then there is a fixed line of horses. That’s the yogi mind. Always stable.” Yoga practice is there to remove impurities and give the body stability. Once the body is stable the mind becomes stable. A focused, steady mind is the aim of this yoga practice. Having a daily yoga practice helps cultivate this steadiness. Once you are established in your practice, no matter how many ups and downs happen in life, you know you can rely on it being there as a tool to keep bringing the body to a steady place, so the mind can stay even- fixed like those horses.