" Yoga begins right where I am - not where I was yesterday or where I long to be." Linda Sparrowe

The topic of discussion this week with my students has been how to set an intention for your practice.

What does that even mean? Am I right?

Some days you may be very clear about your intention for a practice. Feeling amped up or anxious and need to move some energy? Perhaps a high intensity, faster paced practice is just what the doctor ordered.

Feeling sluggish or experiencing low mood? Just showing up to the mat and giving yourself grace as you move through the practice in a more nurturing, slower pace can be enough. Give yourself permission to do so.

Not even sure where to begin or how to find out? The first step to setting an intention for your practice is to get curious!

Show up to your mat, not knowing what you're going to feel or experience and just start moving. Whether on your mat at home or in class. Just move. Take each posture with slow intention and notice every little thing in your body.

Where do you feel resistance, tension or soreness? Do you feel energized, exhausted or somewhere in between? Do you crave fast pace or slow? Do you feel balance between right and left? The list goes on.

Once you have noticed how you feel in your body the next step, and maybe the hardest, is no judgement! Do not judge how you feel, the pace or how expansive the practice. No judging. Just be in the human experience on the mat.

This is the true essence of yoga. Paying mindful attention on the mat. And one day, you just may find that the mindful attention you practice on the mat seeps in to how you show up with in the world, impacting your relationships with loved ones and your community in a beautiful way.

What a gift.