Hello July,

It’s summer and time to enjoy the outdoors and time off. And yet, while we employ the seasons to divide the calendar year, just as we use time to divide the day, yoga teaches us that unity underlies this process of division. We create division in order to make sense of ourselves and the world but ultimately, there is already harmony. The days and seasons flow in and out.

Take Triangle Pose, for instance. To achieve it, step your feet apart, rotate your front leg outward, aligning your knee cap with your toes. Extend your arms to shoulder height, then reach sideways over your front leg, keeping both arms straight. Your legs, sides, and arms form the shape of a triangle, each side extending equally and evenly. There are steps, literally, that you take mindfully to attain a position. However, it is in the position where the pose connects.

Once in this posture, you can begin to explore deeper and deeper until eventually, your mind is absorbed in harmony. The legs, the arms, the spine, the neck, the head, etc. Are you still breathing smoothly and effortlessly? The internal exploration begins to uncover harmony that exists even when we create divisions.

So, next time the completion of a task or your yoga practice or a meeting brings more meaning to you than the actual task, consider the process and find harmony in the steps.