Yoga is a practice of attention.
We begin with the body because the body is something we can feel.
We learn to breathe, to move, to stay, to notice.
And slowly we begin to notice more.
How we react when something is difficult.
How quickly we become impatient.
How much we compare ourselves with others.
How strongly we want things to be different from what they are.
The physical practice is therefore not the goal of yoga. It is one of the places where we begin.
Yoga asks us to look at how we live, how we treat other people, how we treat ourselves, what we hold on to and what we might be ready to let go of.
Some of this happens on the mat.
Much of it happens everywhere else.
This is why yoga cannot really be measured by how flexible we are or how many postures we can do.
The practice may change the body.
But eventually, if we stay with it long enough, it may also change the way we see.