At age 36 and after pregnancy I didn’t think it possible to feel more mobility and freedom without soreness but it is. I guess age is only a word and we get to determine if it’s limiting us or giving us more potential. So many look at yoga like its some type of destination or only for those that have flexibility. However yoga for me is about the ability to come home to my truth and looking at if from Tapas literal translation of heat, can be looked at as our determined effort to become someone of character and strength .. With the heat cooking ourselves in the fire of discipline to transform ourselves into someone of character and strength from within. It is the times of hopeless desperation that shape and mold us into someone of depth. 8 years ago I was mourning a lost of a child. 7 years ago i was battling postnatal depression, 5 years ago I attempted on my life due to depression and abuse. Tapping into Tapas reminded me of the promise of crisis is that it will pick us up and deposit us on the other side of something. The questions for me I ask daily has become will i trust the process and what am I practicing for….
My answer is to be the change I wish to see (within me to become the upward spiral of kindness and love in the world) …. Where there is hatred, let me plant a seed of love.
Where there is doubt, let me be the heart of faith that whispers try again.
Where there is despair, let me sprinkle hope.
Where there is darkness, let me be the light darkness finds, so it remembers it too is light.
Where there is sadness, let me splash joy.
Tapas is the willingness to be both burned and blessed. This resonates with me deeply. Life is the art of suffering well through the burned and blessed process of growth and everything that we experience.