Yoga is never about mastery. It is not about becoming perfect in the poses, becoming pure, or attaining enlightenment.
Rather, when you enter your morning practice, simply slough off expectation, clear any cobwebs from your heart and mind, and open both arms. Go to the place where inspiration, hope, and the creative impulse can come to you.
When interviewed to describe his approach to his craft, the American painter Robert Henri once said, “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” How to enter the “wonderful state”? First, you need not try too hard. Place no demand on yourself. You need not plan, coerce, or strive. When you start practice, take a few breaths and allow yourself to melt a little. Make your heart tender and your spirit ready and receptive. You never know when the wonderful state might arise. No-one can predict its timing. Whenever it comes to you, all hurry and insistence drops away. When you enter the wonderful state, a big weight comes off your shoulders. It is then that you can open to the ways of grace and your whole day will unfold in front of you, dusted in magic.
