Poser

February was a hot mess. Yoga kept the wheels from coming off entirely. I learned more about my yoga practice, and my life, during this cathartic month than I did writing The Phoenix. I’ve finally become a total Poser.

Only 29 days have passed, but everything’s changed. My yoga practice has become the single most important entity in my life, it’s the skeleton, the bones of my entire being. I negotiated through myriad challenges and adversities last month, having to chameleon myself to suit each situation, adapting in the face of life’s most consistent element: change. I found myself having to access mental, emotional and spiritual transcendence as I traveled through each pose, the very essence of yoga. Unpacking Boxes Pose, Apologize To Your Mom Pose, Laptop Frisbee Pose, it’s no different than doing sun salutations at your yoga class. In fact, it’s far more important. Yoga is my life, all day every day. I’m a Poser.  

You don’t do yoga? Bullshit. Your kid craps his pants at the Chick-fil-a playground, you immediately have to rise above the challenge of the situation, Mommy has to find a solution, taking deep breaths. How is that any different than freeing your mind while you're standing on a mat in some ridiculous twisting pose on one leg in a puddle of sweat while your arms feel like they’re going to fall off? You’re 10 miles from the office and your meeting starts in five, yet you’ve moved 20 feet in traffic over the past half hour. Road Rage-asana: an opportunity to practice yoga. Finding a way to think and breathe through it without ripping the steering wheel off and throwing it out the window, that’s your pose. Even if you never take a yoga class in your entire life, think yoga is stupid and feel lululemon clothes are too tight and overpriced, you are still a yogi practicing yoga every day whether you realize it or not, just by living your life. You’re a Poser.

Yoga isn't something you do on a mat for an hour inside a studio. It can be, but it’s bigger than that. Yoga is something that takes place in every facet of your life. Constantly. It’s everywhere we go, it’s in everything we do. Yoga isn’t a thing, it’s an ideal. Everyone is doing yoga all day every day, even if we don’t realize it. At work, on the playground, in the kitchen, in bed, on a boat, with a goat. Yoga is life, and it’s for everyone, everywhere. We're all Posers.