My yoga teacher always says, “It doesn’t matter why people get into yoga, what’s important is that they make it through the door.”

This was the first thing about yoga that touched me deeply, because when he said it, I nodded and then kept going with my day. Yet, over the next few days, I kept thinking about what he’d said.

Looking back, I have seen how yoga works in the lives of everyday people.

I’m not talking about the yogi-fluff we see all the time like #bliss #grateful.

I’m talking about the everyday, normal people who yoga has touched in some way.

All of us who had a reason for starting yoga, ended up getting way more than just a remedy.

We ended up with a new life.

The thing is, all yogis had a reason for getting into yoga, and it didn’t matter what the reason was because we saw improvements in every aspect of our lives.

Here are five ways Yoga can touch the deepest part of our soul.

1. Yoga teaches that with patience, anything can be overcome or transformed.

We are taught that once we reach a certain age, we stop growing, that certain things are not possible. Yet, when we start practicing yoga we notice a change. A shift happens inside of us.

In a quiet moment, we realize:

Wait, I was able to change this, something people have told me was going to be difficult.

If I was able to do this, I can change anything.

And with yoga practice we can improve, reverse or transform anything in our life. That change can either happen physically or as a shift in mindset.

2. Moments start to slow down.

After practicing yoga for awhile, we catch glimpses of silence, serenity and causeless joy.

We find ourselves walking down the street and we glimpse the sun through the leaves or a wide-eyed smile on a child’s face.

It makes us stop, fully absorbed in that moment. In full appreciation, we find a smile forming on our face and something grows inside our heart.

The first Yoga Sutra of Patanjali states, “Now, begins the practice of Yoga” Which has many meanings. One of which is that yoga, integration or union can only happen when we are fully present and absorbed in the moment.

When we are present in the moment, we become timeless.

Just like when we were young, playing in the park. We were so immersed in the present moment that five hours passed by like five minutes.

3. Yoga allows us to truly feel again.

This is a personal experience I had.

I remember when I was younger, I would get teary eyed over sad endings and even happy endings in movies or emotional situations. Then as a grew up, all of that stopped. Without noticing, I became more apathetic of situations, other people and even myself.

After a year or so of practicing yoga and meditation, I remember one day feeling weak and lightheaded so I laid down. Within a few hours, I ended up getting a crazy fever but I wasn’t able to sweat or cool down. My mind started racing and for some reason, I kept getting flashes of all the painful things that happened in my life. Then as it became too much, tears fell down my face.

I came to the sudden realization that I had not cried in years.

Those tears felt like lava coming down my face and I realized it was all the emotions I had kept festering inside.

The heat of unexpressed emotions was inside of me, doing who knows what.

I was re-experiencing all of those moments and yet I was grateful that I was able to feel my emotions.

Ever since then I’ve felt more compassion toward others and myself as well.

4. We’ll find our new, old family.

We are social beings by nature. Many of our best and worst decisions have been made because of, or under the influences of the people in our social circle. When we start practicing yoga we usually drop the things that don’t resonate with us.

Unfortunately, some of these activities are attached to people in our lives who also enjoy them and enjoy relating to us with them. These can be things like food, going out, political parties, hobbies or pass times.

In the beginning, we might feel lonely and alienated from our loved ones.

Rest assured, this is only temporary. We find new people who are more in line with our new life and perspectives.

Most importantly, those in our life who really love us, will always be there or come back.

Especially if we also don’t alienate them in the process.

5. We truly begin to know ourselves.

The most powerful aspects of having a yoga practice is that if we surrender to the process, constantly challenge ourselves and follow the guidelines of yoga philosophy, we find the layers confusion, disharmony, blockages and illusion begin to peel away like an onion.

We stop being able to lie to ourselves, we start noticing our patterns, we become more willing to improve.

We begin to experience the differences toward momentary pleasure and lasting fulfillment.

We get a taste of how amazing life can be.

All of these things make us feel more connected to who we truly are inside. We are able to let those qualities radiate from inside us.

This is not to say that, since we practice yoga, everything is all flowers and sunshine.

There will still be challenges and obstacles. There will still be hurt feelings and conflict. Yet, we become more capable of responding to them because we are more in touch with ourselves.

We begin to put our attention and effort, no matter how small, toward becoming better and we enjoy a more centered and fulfilled life.

Many of us have different reasons for attending our first yoga class or following along our first yoga video.

However, the results are sometimes more than we could have ever expected.

Maybe we came for a quick fix, but we stayed for the soul transformation.

If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments section.

~
Author: Sebastian Tello

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock

Photo: courtesy of Yoga Bliss Photos