As we are approaching summer solstice and 2018 IDY I’ve been spending some time today reflecting on what yoga means to me on a personal level. Over the years of developing a regular practice yoga has provided me with tools to help ride through the difficult times, painful times and happy times of life. Whatever state I’ve been in I have managed to find an answer in yoga whether that’s in asana, pranayama, meditation or in the underlying philosophy. OK so sometimes it is not quite that straight forward and the mind kicks in and tells you that yoga is the last thing you need and you reach for something to ‘treat yourself’ and gives you a quick fix – for me its food, for others it may be alcohol or spending money on that ‘must have’ gadget. Of course there is nothing wrong with any of this but how many times do we do this and afterwards realise that we are feeling just the same (if not worse!) than we did when we started? And then we do a yoga class and we somehow come out feeling more balanced – may be more energised if we were feeling lethargic or relaxed if we were tense or just generally feeling ‘good’. So why isn’t yoga always the first place we go to when things are out of balance??? I wish I had the magic answer to that question but I suspect, for me, it is something to do with habit & human nature to go for a ‘quick fix’ to distract me from how I am feeling but over the years I can honestly say that yoga has slowly helped me to become more self-disciplined and increasingly I turn to yoga and always feel better for it!