With Yoga Comes Responsibility.

Someone asked me the other day what it was I liked about the Ashtanga Mysore practice as opposed to any other yoga class that is led by a teacher. 

For me it is the fact that I must take responsibility for my own practice from the moment I step on the mat to the moment I leave the room.  I have to really connect and be aware of my own body - it's capabilities and limitations - at any given moment.  I also have to be responsible for giving it my all - whatever my all may be on that day. 

I think one of the reasons I like this is because this responsibility seems to carry into every day life.  I am responsible for everything that happens in my life.  I don't mean things that are out of my control like how people speak to me or the fact that I was laid off.  It's more that I am trying to learn to take responsibility to how I react to these moments in life.  I can choose how upset, happy, excited, angry I become to any given situation.

I cannot blame my teacher if I hurt myself while practicing.  I can only take that injury and learn from it.  Become more aware of what happened to cause the injury and take full responsibility to not repeat the aggravation.  Every single time I step on my mat I make a promise to be completely honest with myself.  The more quickly I learn to become honest in my practice, the more responsible I become as a yoga practitioner, thus becoming more aware of my self.