It’s been six years and I still don’t know why my four cousins died in a plane crash.

I still don’t know why my ex-boyfriend chose her over me.

And I still don’t know why my sister’s infertility problems are diagnosed as “unexplained.”

I think society has the misconception that yoga is supposed to answer all our questions, heal all our problems and support us in a life that is harmless, meatless and free of bullsh*t.

I think we’ve got it wrong, yogis.

Yoga answers absolutely nothing.

What I do believe is that yoga cultivates infinite curiosity in our lives. Infinite possibilities. Infinite paths where we finally become courageous enough to stop, slow down and recalibrate our life’s compass.

Yoga is not meant to be a quick fix and it’s not meant to provide us with an instant overnight bag and eye pillow. We are here to be curious—we are here to do the work!

We are here to ask ourselves over and over when we walk into yoga class, and probably more importantly, when we walk out of yoga class:

Who am I? Why am I here?

These are the questions we are faced with when we practice yoga as a living, instead of as a 60-minute performance once a day on our mats.

Be consciously curious.

Who am I? Why am I here?

What answers am I spending hundreds of dollars just to find out? Because the things I’m struggling with aren’t gripping me—I am gripping them.

The things that I struggle with are merely the answers I have not yet found. So I keep asking. I keep rising. I keep doing the work. I keep believing that time is something I am not running out of, rather something I am constantly running into. And that’s okay, because this is the excitement—the work—the potential of my practice, my entire life.

Yoga is often seen as a path we take to achieve a goal.

I do my wrist exercises every day so that I may safely support myself in handstand. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is merely using yoga as a vehicle. What yoga really is, is encoded in our soul. Yoga is what makes us keep coming back for more, even when we don’t have the answers to life’s biggest questions. Yoga is what makes us not be (that much of) an a**hole if we get rear-ended, cut in line or even worse, questioned about our traumas, histories and defeats.

Yoga is the path to infinite possibilities and potential.

The more I become awakened to new possibilities, the more I find is hidden from me. Pretty silly, right?

Yet the more I find out about my life’s purpose, the more I long to seek different ways to manifest just that. I become curious and I allow this fully. I am learning each day to embrace the questions I ask myself, to embrace uncharted territory of what lies ahead and to allow the curiosity to slowly, steadily boil to a beautiful bubble every time I feel lost.

Because every time I feel lost, I come back to my yoga practice. I ask more questions, I seek more answers. I may not unfold all of my truths just yet, but the idea that infinite possible roads to my answers are out there is pretty freakin’ exciting to me.

So let us sway towards the simplicity of seeking and maybe not completely gathering all the answers, but perhaps understanding the questions, the possibilities, the compass within our soul.

 

Author: Katie Collins

Editor: Nicole Cameron

Image: www.david baxendale.com/Flickr