If you have ever built a brand, run a business, defined your purpose or been asked what you value in life, then you may have spent time thinking about "what is your why?"
I was recently asked why I do what I do. Why do I teach yoga? What is the change that I want to create by bringing yoga to my community?
Apparently you are supposed to answer that in a 30 second elevator pitch. Short, concise, clear. I couldn't do that, so I did a brain dump of all the messages I try to convey through teaching yoga and meditation.
In the end, rather than a short purpose statement, I decided that what I had created instead was a manifesto. A manifesto for Santosha Yoga Australia, but also a manifesto for my life.
I showed it to my partner and he asked, sincerely, "Do you always live your life by that manifesto?"
My answer? "I try".
Yoga has changed my life. Not because I put my body in the shape of a downward facing dog several times per week. But because through practice, study, and the people it has put me in contact with, yoga has brought me everything in that manifesto and more:
~ A realisation that the cult of busy is making us distracted, disconnected, and worst of all, sick.
~ The ever-increasing understanding that our mind and body are intertwined and that our thoughts and beliefs can affect our body just as the state of our body can affect our mind.
~ The courage to choose a life that is not filled with too many activities, too much stuff and too much pressure.
~ The insight that I don't always have to strive for perfection. That it's ok to just be. That my greatest growth will come when I finally believe - at my core - that I am enough.
So why do I teach yoga? Because I believe that it can change lives.