Is Your Yoga Story Like Mine?

Years ago, I started yoga by following videos in my living room. (They were VHS tapes – yeah that long ago). I got bit by the yoga bug and quickly wanted more.

So, I enrolled in a yoga class at a community college. This was a cheap easy way for me to take a next step. The step was limited. The scenario was still a monkey see monkey do experience with little interaction. Plus, class was just a few times a week.

Eventually, I joined a studio, started going regularly and following yet more videos at home. I enjoyed yoga and my hunger to learn more and integrate it with my faith and daily living kept growing. But…my progress was ridiculously slow.

Your details may be different, but I’m guessing just by virtue of getting this email, that your hunger to grow more isn’t quite being satisfied, yet.

Honestly, I’m not sure I ever found the level of education and support I craving until eventually I coughed up a boat load of money and time for teacher training. But hey, teacher training isn’t for everyone, is it?

And, even now that I’ve done teacher training, I find myself saying, “Now what?”

Can any teachers give me an Amen!

All of this has set me to thinking about what the critical ingredients are for a consistent and ever deepening practice of of yoga and faith.

I’ve reflected on the times when I was growing rapidly and loved thejourney and here’s what I’ve realized:

To create a vibrant regular practice of yoga and faith that is ever deepening you need key ingredients. Plus, you need a recipe for how to put them together. Ingredients + recipe = success.The critical ingredients are:

1. A growing knowledge of biblical and yoga principles.
2. Goals so you apply and grow in what you learn
3. Life-giving habits and strategies to realize the goals
4. Mentors who know what you don’t know and can propel you forward
5. Yoga buddies who like this stuff just as much as you and who will cheer you on
6. Help avoiding rookie mistakes and leaping over common obstacles
7. A step-by-step system to integrate these elements in the most effective way…i.e. a recipe.

But there is a major problem with these ingredients right? What if you don’t have them all?

For example, my wife recently ordered her favorite smoothie and they were out of ginger. She said, “That’s fine. Make it anyways.” It was awful! She tried to grin and bear it but after about three sips, decided it wasn’t fit to drink. She walked away hungry.

That’s been my experience of working on yoga and faith when some of the above ingredients are missing. I find myself unsatisfied and wanting more.

This is where you come in. Comment on this post or message me and let me know which ingredients(s) are missing for you.

I’ll do my best to personally reply to all comments.

For example…

• You don’t know how to sequence so you feel unconfident in doing practice on your own, so you don’t.
• Or may be you don’t have any yoga goals (or not even sure what that means) so your progress (and joy) of yoga and faith is very hit and miss.
• Or, may be you feel alone on the journey and need mentors and travel buddies who love this as much as you.
• Or…you may be missing everything on the list. That’s okay, but let me know.

Tomorrow I’m going to do my best to begin filling in those missing ingredient so your progress isn’t as painfully slow as mine was (even if you are starting completely from scratch).

Sound good?Please comment.

I look forward to bringing you more tomorrow.

Blessings,John Arnold

PS: By the way, I’ll share first – Lacking community was one of my big struggles. I moved a year ago and lost my studio community. One way I overcame the gap was starting a private Facebook group for Christian yogis. If you aren’t already a part of that group, please come join the private Christ, Yoga, and You Facebook group, CLICK HERE.