Three Aspects of Practice

This week, my yoga teaching theme has three parts.  They work well together, around the principle of nonjudgmental acceptance.

• Cultivate your observing mind - the nonjudgmental mind that sees things as they happen.  Turn down the volume of your thinking mind, and learn how to pull back from it - it is an invaluable tool, but should not be in control.
• Always start where you are.  In whatever you do, see with clarity the reality of the situation, accept things as they are, and then move on.
• Be kind to yourself.  

As helpful and applicable as these ideas are in yoga practice, they also apply to life in all the variety of situations it presents to us.