Life Lessons from a Yogi

When I was younger, I thought yogis were wise sages who sat atop mountains, meditating and doling out philosophical advice. Now I know a yogi is also a practitioner of yoga. I am a yogi.

During my practice as a yogi, my teachers have taught me lessons I have integrated in my family and life. I'd like to share three of the most important lessons I have learned in yoga.

· Be present

· Find your edge

· Do your homework

Be present is easy for me to say, hard to implement. I am still challenged by this lesson. I began my yoga practice while working at Sears corporate offices. I worked 45-50 hours a week, my husband had recently opened his own business and we were raising three young children. At night I attended college classes, struggling to sneak in four hours of sleep each night. Anyone else have a life had times like this in their life? I found myself multitasking to try to keep up with everything. When I talked to my husband or kids, I was also cooking, trying, folding laundry or some other task which did not allow me to devote my full attention to my family. Once I really looked at my actions and how my family reacted, I made an effort to be present in our conversations. As I did so, our relationships deepened.

The next lesson I learned is find your edge. If you image a scale between 0-10, your edge is the five mark. It's not too easy, not too hard. If it's too easy, there is no challenge and you could just about do it in your sleep. When you work too hard, you risk strains, sprains and tears. At your edge there is challenge, growth and learning. My teachers encouraged me to not worry about what anyone else does, just find my edge and work there. That's where the growth is. I used this lesson in my career by working at my own edge at work. By agreeing to try new things when asked or volunteering for challenging assignments I was able to learn new skills, contribute to the organization and my career progressed nicely.

The third lesson I learned is do your homework. Who likes to do homework? Not me! With my college class homework and helping my kids with their homework, I could not believe I asked my teacher after the first day of yoga class, "What should I do for homework?" My wise teacher advised me, "Do something you love and something challenging." The poses I liked were easy for me and made me feel refreshed. Working on challenging poses helped me improve flexibly and lengthened my muscles. It was able to overcome chronic back pain from a car accident when we were hit by a drunk driver. I continue to pick a couple of easy and challenging poses to work on each week.

Let's review these key life lessons

· Be present - focus on the here and now.

· Find your edge - not too easy, not too hard

· Do your homework - enjoy the things you like, work on improving yourself

I'll close with the traditional yoga greeting. The Sanskrit word "Namaste" loosely translates to "the divine light in me honors the divine light in you. I invite you to join me in this greeting.

Namast