In 1987, as a teenager, I stood at the border with a friend. We peered down the highway past the guards and decided to go for it.

We split up and hitchhiked separately into the city, a 3 1/2 hr drive from the West German – East German border crossing. Later that day we made it to Berlin and met up with one another.

We passed the first night in West Berlin and then the next day we walked through “Checkpoint Charlie” into East Berlin. It was distinctly glum and gloomy – everything seemed old and depressed, especially to our young, western eyes. There was little food on the shelves, the mood was sullen,  and life seemed bleak. Outsiders could enter for a day, but the inhabitants could never leave – period.

Two years later all that changed drastically when the wall was torn down.

Now, here we are 20yrs after. While there are still a number of socio-economic points that need critical review and enhancement, at least the repressive and suppressive days of old are gone. And surely better days lie ahead.

Repression and suppression are never good – neither in individual life nor in social life. The entire aim of yoga is to tear down any and all barriers of narrow mindedness and open our minds and hearts to a wider  spectrum of life. Therein lies the health and growth of the human personality.

May we all continue to smash down the walls of differentiation and move forward toward a bright, new universal humanity.

Open any yoga magazine or even the health section of any newspaper, and you will read about the many benefits of yoga: Less stress, greater flexibility, lower blood pressure, deeper sleep, faster recovery time, and so many things.

In short, there are numerous ways how yoga helps. Even then, it can all seem quite theoretical or even beyond what we think we can achieve.

Sometimes we all need to hear stories, anecdotes, or even a word or phrase from people in our local community to inspire us to keep going. You may feel that your experience is insignificant, but by sharing it you may open a whole new avenue of hope and inspiration for someone else.

In my own life, yoga has helped blow away a dark cloud of an inferiority complex that seemed to always loom over or even envelop me. It has also granted me a greater sense of belonging, allowing a much more positive outlook in life – both individually and collectively. There is still a ways to go – but at least the journey is en route and not stalled!

I will gladly share more about the above as well as other ways yoga has helped.

Please take a moment to share how your yoga practice has helped you - in any way, no matter how small or big.

Remember…

You never know what great transformation or subtle shift in perception your words will have on someone else.

This is also a great way to personally reinforce the importance of your own practice.

(The below excerpt is the conclusion of an essay I recently wrote (Yoga: Manifesting Our Dharma) in answer to the question, ‘What is Yoga?’. The introduction is here.)

Yoga means many things to different people, yet ultimately it seems to be about finding happiness and meaning in our life, allowing us to live life to the fullest. Whatever one’s beliefs, career goals, or family situation, yoga will help us discover and share the talents and love that already lie within – making our human life truly great.

To paraphrase the great 16th / 17th century poet Tulsidas, when we come into this world as newborns, everyone smiles in joy and we cry. Yet throughout our lives, we are to engage in so many noble pursuits and benevolent endeavors, that when it is our time to leave this earth, we will smile knowing in our heart that we have done as much as possible to make the world a better place, and everyone else will cry knowing they are parting with a dear and trusted friend.

The practice of yoga stimulates and enhances our growth not just as individuals, but as people who are connected to a greater whole. We no longer view the world as fragmented parts but as a natural extension of ourselves; and, we no longer see others as being separate from us, but as people with whom we have an inherent bond.

Many challenges confront us in our modern culture. Yoga may be part of the balm that will help us unite to face those issues and together discover the solutions. When we become connected to our own heart and mind and realize our inherent dharma, then naturally we can better see the same in others. After all, is that not what living together is all about?

(The below excerpt is the introduction of an essay I recently wrote (Yoga: Manifesting Our Dharma) in answer to the question, ‘What is Yoga?’)

I began my yoga and meditation practice in the Fall of 1991, just after completing a tour of duty as a ranger at a National Park in the Pacific Northwest. That fall, my brother first raised the idea of undertaking a bicycle trip over the Himalayas and across the Indian subcontinent. Time passed.

A year later, in the months before we finally embarked on our epic journey, my brother, a few years my elder and an aspirant of yoga, explained that to him, the practice of yoga was like lifting an upside-down cup off the ocean floor so that the contents of that tiny cup could freely mix with the greater ocean.

In his analogy, the water in the inverted cup represents our individual identity, and the greater ocean represents the vast, universal consciousness. Thereby, in yoga we “lift the cup,” shedding our insecurities and ego, and embracing the limitless wonder of the grand cosmos.

On our journey, we regularly stayed in ashrams (yoga houses) and attended yoga seminars across India. That bicycle trek deepened my understanding and practice of yoga and propelled me further ahead on the path of raja yoga, an all-encompassing approach literally meaning the ‘king of yoga’. That trip was the first time I was completely immersed in a yogic lifestyle.

Shortly after my return to the United States, I attended a local yoga retreat. There, a friend asked, “How was your bicycle trip?” In response, I told him stories of evening meditation sessions on remote hillsides, listening to the wisdom of aged sadhus (yogic sages), and rising in the pre-dawn hours to go practice yoga in the forest. My observant friend remarked, “Well it sounds to me like it was much more than just a bicycle trip.”

And it was. That trip reshaped my entire life and it made yoga the centerpiece.