My Yogi Lifestyle: Manifesting Your Dreams

After kids yoga the other day, my daughter Maggie asked to throw a penny in the fountain so she could make a wish. Her wish was that she could listen to her mom and dad every single day (Wait, what?? Who is this kid?!) She asked me when her wish would come true and I told her that she already had the power to make her wish come true. We all do, for that matter. The greatest obstacle we face in pursuing our dreams is our own self - our own doubts, fears, and reservations are what really get in the way. The trick, of course, is finding the balance between going after what we dream of and at the same time stepping back to allow things to fall into place. Sometimes, in our efforts to achieve something, we try force the circumstances. But the timing might not be right or we may not fully be ready in mind or spirit, though we usually don't recognize this. The same is true when we do our asana practice. We may be working towards an advanced pose or working to build strength and flexibility and we can do this by believing that we can, but we must also respect our limits.

When I did my yoga teacher training a few years ago, I became very familiar with the term "manifestation." I have to admit that at first, I didn't entirely buy into it. How can we make what we want happen just by deciding that it will happen? Eventually, I came to realize that there is more to it than that. We don't just sit around thinking and saying that our wildest dreams will come true, we actually do have to get up and take steps to make them happen. But then what about all this "accept the way things are," "go with the flow," "be content with what is" stuff?  The truth is, again, its both. Its a delicate balance between taking steps to make our dreams come true and being able to accept the way things actually unfold. We manifest our dreams by shifting our energy from "this could never happen" to "I'm going to work to make this happen." We transform our energy from negative feelings of doubt or fear to positive feelings. 

Our yoga practice helps us to release some of the stagnant energy that we hold onto, that energy that harbors negative emotions and feelings. When we move through the postures in yoga, we open up our bodies to allow energy to move and flow, bringing in the good and releasing the negative. We do our part, but we also realize that we must practice patience as events unfold in the way in which the Universe, not our own mind, intends.