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The Importance of Practicing On and Off Your Mat

How was your Holiday week? 

Did you celebrate Christmas and have a bit of a present tornado? 

☝️ That was TOTALLY my house Wednesday morning ☝️.

My kids are still young, so I ended up waking them up (this will probably be the last year, for at least the next 5 years.) I know Christmas is so much more than the presents, and my husband and I did our best to communicate that to our kids, but I'm pretty sure they were just there for the presents.

My parents showed up since they are empty nesters now, and let's be honest, there's no place to celebrate Christmas better than with a group of super excited children. So we sat back and watched the madness with a small amount of restraint.

I'm not going to lie, more than a few times I wanted to say, "Ok, let's stop here for just a few minutes and calm down, clean up, enjoy what we've gotten so far, and then keep going."

In case you were wondering, I didn't....

It was hard though because it was a DISASTER!

We have a pretty small house, so let's do some holiday math:

4 adults + 2 small children + Santa explosion = a HUGE, crowded mess.

Talk about time to practice your yoga, right?

Just like Rebecca said so beautifully in her Christmas Eve Facebook post, part of our jobs as yogis is to take your practice out of the studio and into real life. 

This means different things to different people (and it doesn't just mean doing dancer's pose on the beach, but I have done that....-before children, many many years ago). 


(this pic was taken on Little Corn Island in Nicaragua, anyone want to go back with me? Leave a commenty and maybe we can schedule a trip in late 2020 or early 2021!)

Today, I encourage you to take your practice with you. I hope you'll join us in the studio as we have a full schedule of AWESOME classes all week and of course into the New Year (and decade!). If you are traveling for the holidays, don't forget we have an AWESOME youtube channel (don't forget to like and subscribe!) Finally, if you would like direct access to live, interative classes, real time virtual feedback and a library of yoga inspired videos, check out Thrive Online, our very own online platform.

Just one more thing,  don't just practice the postures.  Practice the breathing, practice the mind control, practice the presence that comes with your consistent dedication to your yoga. Let me know what happens when you do this on and off your mat. See what changes as a result.  

Just like in a yoga class, it may not be easy all the time, but it's totally worth it.

This post was written by Jennifer Dixon ERYT 500 and Authorized Ashtanga Yoga teacher by Manju Jois, son of Pattahbi Jois.  It was part of a weekly studio newsletter.

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