by Tracey Rich

Yoga pose as metaphor has meaning. How you are in your asana can pretty much mirror how you are in life. The expression, everywhere you go, there you are, is a great one to ponder.

Derek Walcott also has a beautiful line in his poem, Love After Love, that reads: “the time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other's welcome.”

Seeing ourselves is part of the work of Yoga. Asana practice is a wonderful place to bring this awareness forward. Part of what our practice can teach us is to extend our perception, both inward and outward. Harnessing or yoking awareness of body, mind, and breath in unity involves full presence. Each breath and each moment within the pose also affords us the opportunity of acute observation. If you hold back, are impatient, aggressive, or overly assertive, tentative, or don't easily settle into things, then you will likely find yourself doing the same dance in your yoga practice.

While each asana and the entirety of our practice allows for such reflection, it is also a joy to be yoked to the meditation that our practice can be. The breath is not only the fabric that knits each movement together, it is also the witness consciousness. The continuum of breath in our practice carries the possibility of keeping us simultaneously present and fully immersed.

How beautifully revealing and enlightening it is to greet yourself arriving at your own door.