What happens when you drift away from yoga

Life has been a bit strange for me lately, and I've found it difficult to start making even a partial living from teaching yoga. One of the things an entrepreneur needs to research is how many others in their area do what they do/want to do. Same for any business. This is a Western/logical step that's all-too necessary in these times.

And once you've had a good taste of yoga, your body and mind react to you letting it slide out of a daily practice. Or any regular practice. Here's what I've seen in myself:

1. Physical issues/troubles get worse.
I got into yoga because I was carrying too much tension. I've found that I store it more readily since I allowed myself to drift away because of other life concerns. Anything that was bothering my body seemed stronger because of that, and the stress enabled some new symptoms.

Once I addressed some of the causes, the newer symptoms went away. But the older ones? Only got a little better. There are good reasons to at least keep up with some yogic stretching - no matter what.

2. Your mind is harder to calm.
What is yoga but something that makes it easier to slow our mind's frantic pace down and let things be - even just a little? You don't have to meditate to find this. A practice that hits what your body needs is a calming force in and of itself, and that becomes your break from how our world is urging us to live our lives.

With the body relaxed, the mind doesn't feel like it has to work as hard to keep us going. It can recharge, kinda like a battery.

3. Emotions get the better of you more readily.
I can't begin to think of the number of times recently that I felt little annoyances build to the point where I thought they'd drive me crazy. It's happened in all sorts of areas in my life. Which means it's been harder to tell myself to just breathe and see whether I can let it slide right by me.

Meditation may be the best help here. Of course, not all of us can be okay with looking into ourselves. The best we can do is learn to see our thoughts as clouds that are just drifting by - and learn to not grasp at them.

(sighing) Of course, writing this post is a step back on the path of better living for me. Start clearing my mind by reconnecting with why I developed a yoga practice in the first place.

Let me tell you: it's a surprisingly powerful feeling of relief...