The Synchronicity of Yoga - How Yoga Shaped My Life

This weekend I was doing some reflection about my life – the past, the present and my future. This exercise was spawned after I re-read Deepak Chopra’s The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, a book about creating your own destiny. This got me thinking of the choices I made in the past that led me to where I am now. More specifically, I was curious how yoga has shaped my life.

I’ve been a student of yoga for about five years now. And since I started practicing, I have gone through and continue to go through an evolution that I firmly believe would not have happened otherwise. In truth, I started yoga more than five years ago, but at the time it was just a physical exercise. I used it as an instrument to tighten my butt. My practice really only began after my brother passed away.

A Loss

Losing a sibling is not something you could prepare for. You could read a million books on grieving or how to deal with a sudden death in your family, but until you actually experience it, it will only be a concept to you. A concept that your mind may be able to understand, but not something your heart can comprehend. So when I say that my yoga practice began five years ago, that was when I started to get it. The loss of my brother punctured a hole in my heart, which became the entry and exit points for many things in my life, including yoga. My mind didn’t understand yoga but my heart understood it right away. All the gibberish that the yoga instructor would yammer about during class finally had meaning to me. Connect with your breath, be present, be still, yada yada yada…mere words formed sentences, which evolved into paragraphs that created a story. A story with substance and resonance. My heart started to heal.

Yoga created a shift that affected the dynamics of my being. It's akin to a disc that is out of alignment in your spine. You learn to live with the discomfort that the misalignment creates. But once it's snapped back into place, you feel immediate relief from the pain. And ultimately, everything else improves as well - you're more fluid in your movement, you sleep better, you breathe with more ease, the chronic headaches go away, plus a myriad of other discomforts disappears.

Yoga Creates Harmony

Yoga created alignment within me, and without really knowing it, it laid the foundation for my life thereafter. My mind, heart, spirit and physical being - disparate entities prior to my practice - were in harmony. Eventually, I made choices that were in accordance with that foundation. The changes started within. I started to respect my body. I began caring about what I fed it and in time my diet changed. I also altered what I fed my mind. I discovered brilliant authors, inspiring stories and new classics. I also learned to still my mind. My meditation practice was born.

Then the changes went outward. I saw people and nature differently. I realized that they are just an extension of me, and I needed to treat them in the same respect. I gravitated towards like-minded beings and away from those who didn't ally. I started to live consciously with as little impact on the planet as possible. Once a consumer and someone who promoted consumerism, I moved away from this wasteful way of living. Instead, I defined my fulfillment curve and started to use only what was needed.

The shift was natural and organic. There was no struggle. It's no wonder yoga has survived thousands of years. Yoga is holistic - it integrates the body, mind and spirit. And once this is done, one is able to be in harmony with herself and her environment. The practice becomes a way of living. Now that I know what brought me here, I'm excited to find out what the future holds for me.

Exercise

Want to try the same experiment I did? Okay, then close your eyes. Think about a theme in your life (e.g. relationship, finances, career - in my case it was yoga). Think about what you've been doing in the past week in relation to your chosen theme. Then move back through your memory to a month ago, then 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, etc. For me, I went as far as 6 years. Try to recall as much detail as possible - where you were, what you were doing, people you met, choices, events, and so on. You may want to write down the information you begin to remember. You should start to notice a string of "coincidences" or "synchronicity" in the circumstances that led you to where you are now. This exercise is insightful because you realize that you are capable of charting your own life map, and if everything is in harmony, then the Universe will guide you along the way.

Care to share your synchronicity?