When life becomes yoga

I completed 500 yoga classes last week.

I’ve never really kept track of how many hours I’ve spent practicing yoga on my own. I know 500 is certainly a conservative count, but I didn’t even realize I had reached that number until I was told by the team at my favorite yoga studio.

People often assume I’ve been doing yoga for years, but the truth is, it’s only been a little over two. I didn’t even work out before (I mean… I could barely do a single push-up!) I used to joke that my muscles were for decoration, and my Asian genes would be enough to keep me forever young 🤪

But there’s something about yoga that goes far beyond the asana and pranayama, and that something is what keeps me coming back.

In fact, it became my daily practice.

It became the door that I open every day to return home to myself.

For most of my life, I’ve felt pulled between extremes and opposite directions. My outer life and worldly desires versus my inner self and materialistic detachment. The public side of me that wants to optimize everything, not just in my professional life but also in building security for myself—my time, my resources, my outputs—and the private side of me that prefers to savor life slowly, wholly, deeply. 

For most of my life, I’ve tried to suppress the spiritual side in me because it felt so taboo for me to even face it. Because sensitivity wasn’t rewarded, intensity wasn’t considered fun, and authenticity wasn’t exactly the best advice for success.

But yoga helps me return to my inner child—the very girl I used to deny.

The depth I once felt ashamed of started to feel like home, again.

Through breath, through movement, through quiet presence, I no longer find myself trying to reconcile but dissolve the illusion of duality. I stopped trying to be this or that. I stopped chasing what I’m “supposed to” and started trusting what feels right. 

Everything, everywhere, all at once 🙃

I have this almost insatiable obsession with the seemingly unattainable standards and unexplainable life mysteries. I want to get to the bottom of everything, but now I understand: there’s no end to consciousness, and everything we thought was separable—including ourselves—is all inter-being. 

I've learned to release my clinginess to what was and what might be. As only the present remains, something profound emerged.

I might be a natural initiator and self-starter, but I tend to get bored easily. Yoga taught me the difference between a ritual and a hobby. Hobbies entertain, but rituals transform. And this practice, no matter how subtle or sweaty, has held me through every season of becoming.

What a gift, to connect the outer and inner world together.

To no longer feel like they’re in conflict, but aligning in perfect harmony.

The girl who once felt like she was too much—too perceptive, too serious, too curious—has become the teacher of my everyday practice, gently showing me what divine love is. 

Where playfulness meets intensity, stillness meets movement, and practicality meets spirituality.

Yoga means ‘to yoke’—to join, to unite, to return to wholeness. And through that practice, I return to union with myself, with others, and with the universe itself.

That’s when life becomes yoga.

✨

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Credit: Original Audio