What is Yoga Practice?

We often hear heart-flutteringly abstract stuff like “let your breath guide you”, or “yoga is not an exercise, it’s a lifestyle”, better yet “practise, practise, practise, and all is coming.”  They may be true to some extent.  But don’t let esoteric niceties distract you from proper practice and actual progress. There is a difference between motivation and discipline. Motivation might inspire, but discipline does not need inspiration. 

People say that we don’t change until we hit rock bottom. 

For me, rock bottom arrived in the middle of COVID. 

I had been living with lupus (SLE) for years, but during that season of uncertainty and stress, my body started to send louder signals — the kind you can’t ignore. My autoimmune condition began attacking not only my joints and blood, but my kidneys too. What followed was a sequence of events that felt both surreal and terrifying: a kidney biopsy, complications, emergency surgery, and the kind of physical pain that brings you to the edge.