Everything is Everything

In some ways, I think I have always been a Yogi. Ever since I was young, I always noticed how people and concepts were the same, rather than how they were different. This fundamental perspective led me into social issues-based college journalism, later into social work and education, and, over the past decade or so, into Yoga. Now, finding myself at one of those junctures in life where you examine the past and meditate on the future, I realize that Yoga is indeed a way of thinking, seeing, being and feeling in the world, rather than any set of practices or techniques (like meditation). In questioning what your purpose is, you discover that you bring your fundmental truth to everything that you do, and the approach defines the quality and result of your efforts much more than the activity itself. This is enormously liberating, especially if you tend to judge yourself critically for not doing something "enough" -- e.g., you don't do enough asana practice or you don't eat enough vegetables. Through Yoga you reside and abide in your fundamental truth, a unified, holistic state of being that is evident in your work, relationships and pasttimes. In this way you realize that everything is everything -- or, Yoga. Om shanti.