Yoga is a resilience practice

As a studio owner, one of the most persistent challenges is explaining the benefits of a yoga practice to people who don’t perceive themselves as “yoga” people—whatever it is that they think that means.

The yoga world, like any other pocket of contemporary society, is full of people who want to make definitive statements about what yoga is, and isn’t. What lineages count, and don’t. What trainings are legitimate, what motivations are “pure,” what modalities are “perfect” or “complete,” and which are “dangerous” or “extreme.” Like anything practiced and shared by humans, yoga is historically and socially bound, flawed, and changing.

So, what is it—and why is it important enough for me to make it a substantial part of my life’s work?

It’s a resilience practice.

And we need resilience. Resilience is our ability to adapt to challenging life circumstances, both internally and externally. It is physical and psychological. A mind and body practice, if you will.

Resilience has to be cultivated internally and independently. You can have a coach, mentor, teacher, or therapist to support your resilience, but they cannot do it for you. And that’s where yoga can help.

Yoga asks us to be present and accountable to our practice. Setting an intention at the beginning of practice is not the same thing as making a performance demand. Instead, it’s an opportunity to engage with yourself with curiosity, compassion, and honesty. What do you need today? No one else can answer that question for you.

But when we practice curiosity, compassion, and honesty on our mat we learn to recognize when we are missing those things off the mat. It gives us a way to build internal trust, to step out of black-and-white thinking, and to actually notice our experience so that we can be responsive, instead of reactive.

One of my biggest pet peeves when I was working in DI athletics was when people would say, “oh, these athletes just need to be more resilient.” And what they meant by that was “toughen up,” or “ask fewer questions,” or “don’t have needs.” But peak performance—in athletics, business, relationships—comes when we are adaptable. It’s not about enduring change or hardship. It’s about developing tools so that we can live well in our body, mind, and relationships, even when the wheels are coming off.

So, when people ask me, “why yoga,” I think— wouldn’t we all rather live in a more resilient world?