off the mat into the modern world

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By: Jessi Andricks
Jessi Andricks, founder of the House of Healthy, can help you find the tools within you to live the healthier, happier life you deserve. Jessi is a Health Coach and yoga teacher in Charleston, SC. ...

Patanjali said it best. Yoga is the calming of the fluctuations of the mind. Anything that takes you on a journey of self-discovery to quiet the mind, give you clarity, and bring you peace becomes yoga.

In the west, and even in the east, yoga is often seen as just the physical practice on your mat. And for many, this is the biggest part. For Patanjali, this was just one component of the entire yoga sphere, and just one way bring peace to a busy mind. So what if your yoga could be taken and practiced off the mat? What if instead, you could bring yoga into more

mainstream, modern parts of your life?

If you have an activity that you love, you most likely practice or perform it regularly without fail, not because you force yourself, but because you simply love it. If this activity brings you peace and calms the mind, then this too can be yoga. Any action that you make to calm the mind becomes your yoga practice, on or off the mat.

You can see this in the focus and clarity of a runner, the fast and intense movements of an interval trainer, or perhaps in the quiet contemplation of a meditation. Whatever it might be for you, this is your practice and your practice and your yoga.

We often regard our mats as a sacred place where we meet our Self and calm the sensations and chatter between our ears. And while the mat is a sacred place and a safe place for these things to occur, taking your practice away from the mat can help you find this peace and calmness even after your yoga class has finished.

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