Lately, I’ve been thinking about practice.

I often conclude classes with this simple reminder. Your practice is not confined to a specific studio, teacher, space, or posture. It does not simply begin and end on the mat, it is a place where it continues.

Early on in the pandemic the internet led me to the work of Jake Ernst. He is a writer, therapist, and educator based in Toronto, Canada. Recently he shared a series of questions on his Instagram, one of which was, how will you slow down in a world that wants you to speed up? 

The word that instantly came to my mind is practice. The way we slow down in a world that wants us to speed up is through practice. It is through practice that we begin to shape a world that de-centers speed and doing the most at all times. Which is not necessarily easy, but in many ways it’s rather simple. Most every single thing we do in life is practice.

The more we repeat something the more accessible it becomes. Like wearing down the grass on a pathway through walking it over and over again. Any habit you engage in is birthed from practice. This is perhaps what I love most about it. Practice is simply about revisiting and returning. It is about repetition. Perhaps in its most reverent form practice becomes a ritual.

There are points in time that may serve as a natural opportunity to check in with what you feel drawn to practice. Such as the beginning of a week, month, season or lunar cycle aka the new moon. We’ve experienced most of those in the last handful of days.

So, consider what practices are calling to you during this time. What are you revisiting? In what ways do your rest and care practices need adjusting and recalibrating as you transition into spring?

For me, one of the practices I am continuing to revisit is teaching. If you’re in need of some space to slow down and unwind this month check out my on demand practices or give my podcast a listen (I promise there are new episodes coming soon).

If you’d like to practice with me in person, then join me on Tuesday evenings for yin yoga at Hot Yoga Ferndale. I’ll be there every week at 8:30PM.