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Yoga can be considered an art, and just as art need not be confined to a canvas or museum, the practice of yoga need not be confined to a mat or studio. The most important stretch we can make in our practice of yoga is to take it into our daily lives, into every moment, into every encounter. This is not to say that we should drop our individual practice or skip our yoga classes, but rather that we can enter these activities as a way of honing our strength, flexibility, and balance so that these qualities are brought to life, and kept alive, in all our dealings.

The philosopher Nietzche said “art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence.” As an art, the practice of yoga also affirms, blesses, and deifies existence — every moment of it, not just for 90 minutes; every aspect of it, mind, emotions, and spirit, not just the body.

We can practice yoga with the same dedication and devotion as a religion can be practiced (though yoga is not a religion in the conventional sense). The Sanskrit root for yoga (yuj), the Latin root for religion (religare), and the Latin root for art (ar) are similar in meaning: to bind or unite. Yoga, as with religion and art, brings union. The practice brings our individual self in union with our Self, with the beauty, love, and wholeness that form our essence.

The Challenge of Yoga

Yoga is often taught merely as another physical practice or discipline. The primary focus of yoga should not be so much on physical fitness, which will be a natural outcome of the practice, but on inner fitness. What is going on between our ears? What is going on in our hearts? These are the questions we should pose and answer in our practice.

When we focus only on physical fitness, we can develop a strong and flexible body while leaving our mental, emotional, and spiritual sides withered. We might be able to lift a heavy weight without hurting our back, or dance without pulling a muscle, but when challenged by life’s inevitable obstacles, we easily fall apart. Our only answer to life’s trials is inane and futile questioning such as “Why is this happening to me?” or “Why didn’t things progress according to my expectations and plans?”

The yoga of inner fitness attunes our attention to the “How” questions, such as “How can I respond favorably and gracefully to this situation?” It brings importance to the inner pose we hold in our minds: our attitude.

In the words of B.K.S. Iyengar, “The brain is the hardest part of the body to adjust in asanas.” The real challenge of yoga is not so much how far we can stretch but how we stretch far.

Cherishing this spirit of yoga becomes even more urgent today as yoga begins to enter the mainstream. Commonly, yoga is being taught in fitness centers by aerobics teachers who have little understanding of the depth of yoga. Too often, body and ego consciousness are being strengthened at the expense of soul consciousness, and the practice is undertaken in much the same way as the other physical fitness activities: dead serious, plenty of sweat, and little joy. How often do we see smiling faces in fitness centers?

The Bhagavad Gita states that yoga is “skill in action.” Yoga is balance and peace maintained within action. Some people use yoga as an escape or withdrawal from action. When a stretch becomes a grueling challenge or when life’s climb gets treacherously steep, yoga teaches us to proceed with a lion’s heart and a level head. In this spirit, we bring the greatest skill in action.  

How Do We Hold  the Positions We Take On in Life?

Hatha yoga postures give us an opportunity to learn to assume many positions with grace. This practice can carry over to the many "positions" we take on in life. Whether it be as manager, secretary, parent, partner, environmentalist, we can learn to take on these positions with the same focus and inner peace that we practice in our yoga: we assume our responsibilities gracefully; we hold to our responsibilities gracefully; and, when the time is right, we let go of our responsibilities gracefully, moving on to the next position and its associated responsibilities.  

The Sanskrit term for yoga postures, asana, means “sitting” comfortably, steadily, and effortlessly. Thus, our goal is to learn to become comfortable in a variety of positions, to breathe easily under all kinds of circumstances.

We learn to listen to the body and to extend ourselves without pain or strain. When we strain or push, we lose the grace of the posture. Nothing is gained except, perhaps, injury. Muscles do not stretch when they are being traumatized. They do not become more flexible when they are being forced. They recoil and tighten to protect themselves from injury. If, instead, we gently enter a posture and relax into it, the muscles seem to trust us. They can let go of their protective, fear-based tension. Only then do we experience the grace of the posture. We experience a wonderful sense of relief and a lasting, inner glow of energy.  

How Do We Extend Ourselves?

In yoga, we are encouraged to extend our horizons of mobility and consciousness rather than being stuck in familiar ways that feel safe to us. We extend sensibly and compassionately. We create an inner environment that is safe and assuring, one that we can bring with us as we approach the unknown that lies beyond our preconceived and often illusory limits.

This way of extending ourselves and handling change makes yoga an effective stress management tool. Psychologists claim that change is one of the greatest causes of stress (they list marriage, divorce, moving to a new job or location, and the ultimate transition — death — as the greatest stressors). Yoga helps assuage the anxieties associated with change by connecting us to a source of strength and peace at the core of our being that we bring with us wherever we go.  

Through yoga, we extend our range of comfort, and beyond the yoga mat, we may begin to experience more ease when confronted by difficult situations that in the past had usually ruffled our feathers.

In yoga classes, we focus on our own progress and avoid comparing and competing with others. Comparison and competitiveness tend to move our focus from internal to external.  

Competition has its place but not in yoga. Competitiveness tends to narrow our vision to the goal of winning. In giving too much importance to the goal (victory), we lose sight of, and delight in, the value of the moment (the process, the game). We lose joy and playfulness, attributes that require being fully present in the moment.

So, the goal of yoga is to be fully and playfully and delightfully present within every moment. Karlfried Graf von Durckheim says it this way:

“The initiates strive toward mastery and even at this state should have the taste for play on the way, pleasure in the dharma [duty, or responsibility to our central law of our being], the samadhi [mystical union] of playing.”[1]

Can We Be More Playful in Our Practice?

Play is a state of being that can inspire as well as infuse our yoga practice. Hugo Rahner said “To play is to yield oneself to a kind of magic... to enter a world where different laws apply, to be relieved of all the weights that bear it down, to be free, kingly, unfettered and divine.”[2]

This is the creative activity of what Hinduism calls Lila, the divine play of God, through which the one is transformed into the many, and the many returns to the one. In a sense, when we enter a yoga posture, we can think of ourselves as engaging in that divine play: creating a posture or assuming a position and then becoming one with it and experiencing the unity of self with Self or spirit. Fred Donaldson, author of Playing by Heart, writes this about play:

“Original play derives its power from a source immemorial beyond our oldest memories revealing to us the furthest connections of our souls... A sense of grace, a light delirium sparks a sensitive detector in a human spine at the invitation to play. An intimate energy is shared; an appetite for life increases.”[3]

The way to enter this state of being is to be childlike. In Christ’s words: “Except ye ... become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”[4] Similarly, the great yogi Sri Ramakrishna said, “So long as one does not become simple like a child, one does not get divine illumination.”[5] When we become childlike in our practice, we can experience heaven on earth. We become illumined in a magical state.

We become childlike in our practice by having a beginner’s mind. The Zen master Shunryu Suzuki said, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”[3] The child’s mind is free of judgment and preconceptions about the way things should be. It is open and inquisitive, taking delight in even the ordinary. In fact, most everything is extraordinary to a healthy child. When we lose that sense of delight, we age rapidly. As the saying goes, “you know you are getting old when you have lost your marvels!”

In play, the child laughs often and is seldom discouraged. When learning to walk, a fall is not the end of the road: the child gets right back up and tries again. We adults are walking today because we had the mind and spirit of a child!

Laughter Is a Good Stretch, Too!

We can be serious about our practice of yoga, but we do not have to be solemn. Too often, people practice yoga and other disciplines with a “grim” and bear it attitude. Ultimately, their practice resorts to yo-yo yoga: their enthusiasm and commitment go up and down, and soon they fall from the path. The weight of seriousness becomes too heavy to bear.

When we take ourselves too seriously in our practice, we feed our ego and become heavy hearted. When we live and practice with a sense of humor, we feed our soul and become lighthearted. It gives us a lift, lubricates our mental ball bearings, and helps us get back on a roll.

Moreover, laughter is one of the means of initiation from master to disciple (the other means being touch and sight).  Ramakrishna once said “The day you are liberated, you will laugh, and laugh, and laugh.” The greatest yoga teachers and spiritual leaders have a deep sense of humor. Deliberate laughter is one of the most highly recommended Taoist and Zen meditations. A Japanese proverb says “Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.” Is this convincing enough that laughter has value, even in such sacred places as yoga studios?

A wholesome sense of humor and yoga both bring similar benefits to mind, body, and spirit. The word “humor” comes from the Latin humere, which means to be fluid like water. A sense of humor helps us become more fluid and flexible. We learn to flow. Without a sense of humor in our yoga practice, we end up with a flexible body but a stiff and brittle mind.

Laughter, the behavioral response of humor, provides a good stretch. It keeps us loose, and it is healing, energizing, and even transforming. It raises our spirits and stretches limited perspectives. After Steven Spielberg finished his epic film, Schindler’s List, he became severely depressed. He was very disturbed by the atrocities of the holocaust and unable to snap out of his depression. Nothing seemed to help until he finally telephoned his friend Robin Williams. Just a few minutes conversing with the comic provided the snap Spielberg was looking for.

The kind of humor being addressed here is wholesome humor that uplifts the spirit and also brings unity and rapport among people. Cheap humor (sarcasm and put downs) hurts, divides, or excludes people. It comes at the expense of someone else or of another race or group of people (such as with ethnic jokes).  

Humor does not have to be obscene to induce laughter, nor does being humorous equate to being a stand-up comedian, no more than being a yogi equates to being an acrobat. In the words of Garrison Keillor:

"Humor is not a trick, not jokes. Humor is a presence in the world — like grace  — and shines on everybody.”

Replace “humor” with “yoga” in Keillor’s statement and no truth is lost. Humor and yoga give us a way of being in the world, a way of embracing reality (or a pose) with openness, gentleness, and lightheartedness.

By keeping a healthy sense of humor about ourselves, we can accept more easily who we are and where we are. With this acceptance, we attain a state of grace and levity that raises our spirits but keeps us down to earth. Rather than arrogantly placing ourselves above others, we can accept and feel a sense of unity with them. Again, yoga is unity. If what we practice sets us apart from others, then we are not practicing yoga.

A hearty laugh is good for the heart. It relaxes the diaphragm, improves circulation, and relieves stress. It promotes ideal breathing by relaxing the shoulders and the neck and alternately tensing and releasing the abdomen. By building up stomach pressure, it improves circulation to the entire body. Laughter strengthens the immune system by stimulating the thymus, the master gland of the immune system, located near the heart.

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