“The quality of our breath expresses our inner feelings.” - T.K.V. Desikachar

“Whenever you are in doubt, it is best to pause. Few things are so pressing that they cannot wait for a moment of breath.” - T.K.V. Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice

What are we doing to prepare to open up and return to normalcy:

“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.” - Sean Covey

“It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” - Benjamin Franklin

“You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, ‘I release the need for this in my life.’ ” - Wayne Dyer

“It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn't matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.” -Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” - Henri Bergson

“Any action done with beauty and purity, and in complete harmony of body, mind and soul, is Art.” - B.K.S. Iyengar

“Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.” - B.K.S. Iyengar

“Healthy plants and trees yield abundant flowers and fruits. Similarly, from a healthy person, smiles and happiness shine forth like the rays of the sun.” - B.K.S. Iyengar

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” ―Samuel Johnson

“I can’t take back the past, but I can fight for the future.”- Shannon A. Thompson, Death Before Daylight

“Successful people aren’t born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don’t like to do.” - William Makepeace Thackeray

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” ―John C. Maxwell

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.” -Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

Paulo Coelho

“My heart might be bruised, but it will recover and become capable of seeing beauty of life once more. It's happened before, it will happen again, I'm sure. When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive--I'll find love again.” - Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

“If I’m losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga.” - Terri Guillemets

“1. You must let the pain visit.

2. You must allow it teach you

3. You must not allow it overstay. - (Three routes to healing)”

Yoga is a lot like life. It is a balance between holding on and letting go.

“Never underestimate yourself. You are capable of great things. ...

My greatest struggles, are my greatest lessons. I will always remember that I only have control over myself, and my choices.

I will stop focusing on how stressed I am and remember how blessed I am. Complaining won’t change my reality, but a positive attitude will.”

“Being positive does not mean ignoring the negative. Being positive means overcoming the negative. There is a big difference between the two.”

“I will get back up. Again, and again. The faster I recover from setbacks, the faster I’ll get back on the path of life.”

“When I find that I don’t have time for what matters, I will stop doing things that don’t.”

“There’s nothing selfish about self-care and self-love. I can not give what I don’t have. When I enrich my own life, I’ll be life-giving to others too.”

“When the grass looks greener on the other side, it’s just life’s way of reminding me to water the grass I’m standing on.”

Before you utter anything, run your thoughts through three key filters and don’t speak unless you get three resounding YES responses:

Is it true? Is it kind? Is it helpful?

“Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.”

"Happiness doesn’t mean you always have a smile on your face. It means you have a foundation for your existence that allows you to be at peace no matter what is happening in your life." – Wai Lana

The hardest prison to escape from is our mind.

Change is never painful. Resistance to change is painful.

Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but instead in trying to control it.

Do not choose the one that is beautiful to the world, but rather choose the one who makes your world beautiful.

The mind is like water. When it is turbulent it is difficult to see, when it is calm it becomes still.

What comes easy won’t last long and what last long won’t come easy.

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito in the room.” – Dalai Lama

“Open your hands if you want to be held.” - Rumi

Your diet is not only what you eat. It's what you watch, what you listen to, what you read, the people you hang around... be mindful of the things you put into your body emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

“Isn’t it funny how we make rational excuses for being out of alignment?

We say, “Well, this ____ and that ____ happened, so it makes perfect sense for me to be feeling like this ____ and wanting to do this ____.”

Yet, to this day, I have never met a happy person who adheres to those excuses. In fact, each time I – or anyone else – decide to give in to “rational excuses” that justify feeling bad – it’s interesting that only further suffering is the result.

There is never a good enough reason for us to be out of alignment with peace. Sure, we can go there and make choices that dim our lights… and that is fine; there certainly is purpose for it and the contrast gives us lessons to learn… yet if we’re aware of what we are doing and we’re ready to let go of the suffering – then why go there at all? It’s like beating a dead horse. Been there, done that… so why do we keep repeating it?

Pain is going to happen; it’s inevitable in this human experience, yet it is often so brief. When we make those excuses, what happens is: we pick up that pain and begin to carry it with us into the next day… and the next day… into next week… maybe next month… and some of us even carry it for years or to our graves!

Forgive, let it go! It is NOT worth it! It is NEVER worth it. There is never a good enough reason for us to pick up that pain and carry it with us. There is never a good enough reason for us to be out of alignment with peace. Unforgiveness hurts you; it hurts others, so why even go there? Why even promote pain? Why say painful things to yourself or others? Why think pain? Just let it go!

Whenever I look back on painful things or feel pain today, I know it is my EGO that drives me to “go there.” The EGO likes to have the last word, it likes to feel superior, it likes to make others feel less than in hopes that it will make itself (me) feel better about my insecurities. Maybe if I hurt them enough, they will feel the pain I felt over what they did to me. It’s only fair! It’s never my fault; it’s always someone else’s. There is a twisted sense of pleasure I get from feeling this way, and my EGO eats it right up. YET! With awareness that continues to grow and expand each day, I choose to not feed my pain (EGO) or even go there. I still feel it at times, of course, so I simply acknowledge it and then release it.

I HAVE power and choice over my speech and actions. I do not need to ever “go there” again. It’s my choice; it’s your choice. So it’s about damn time we start realizing this. We are not victims of our impulses or emotions; we have the power to control them, and so it’s time to stop acting like we don’t. It’s time to relinquish the excuses.”

― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings for Enriching Life