Butterfly Yoga

No matter what your body type, bring the butterfly into your practice.

How does your body feel, looking at this image? For me, there is a indescribable lightness of touch, a spaciousness, a singularity of purpose. I’m going to start bringing this into my yoga practice. I’m calling it Butterfly Yoga, to remind myself. It’s another color on the palette of a full practice.

We come in all shapes and sizes. We can fall anywhere on the spectrum of flexibility and mobility. None of that hinders our ability to summon a winged weightlessness to our time on the mat. And off the mat, for that matter.

Of course, our practice needs to be grounded as well. The places where we connect with the earth (feet, hands, sit bones, etc.) must be consciously rooted. But the danger is that we unconsciously shackle ourselves downward with this rootedness.

Another danger is that we might tighten into a kind of righteous greed for achievement. We call it striving for excellence, going for the gold. But all that striving and going can push awareness out of the way. It can eclipse true yoga, which is where the mind, body, and heart dance as one.

The weight of intent, the grip of agenda, the need to do well can drain us of the very energy, the very life we are meant to access through the pose. This…