Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I love this time of year when I can spend time cooking, doing yoga and giving thanks for all that I have. Although, gratitude is something to experience all year, at this time it is especially a perfect reminder.
I am so grateful for my yoga practice, teacher and yoga buddies. I have received so much strength, comfort and release spending time with others doing yoga or just at home in my own practice.

So how do we practice gratitude in our own poses? I spend much of my time thinking of the pose and how to be best aligned to receive the most physical benefit, then I have to be there a moment and get beyond the physical in my pose and experience it for what it is. I then need to experience gratitude for what it is doing for me and my body. It means that sometimes I have to hold the pose longer and really feel what I am doing.

I hear many times students feeling pushed too hard or if they do not "do the actual" pose then what is the point? My answer to them is, "what is the actual "pose" for you. Let go and be where you are, feel the benefits of what you are doing."

I love this reminder for students it brings me back to when I started yoga and even now(we are always still students), I need the reminder, when I can start to push myself.

Let go and enjoy this lovely holiday.....bring gratitude to your next yoga pose!!

Namaste' Denise