With smart phones in our hands and our laptops in close range, every answer to every question is right at our fingertips. We consume great amounts of food, but participation in growing is not something we have time for. We want prolific stock returns, yet we are unwilling to do even basic accounting. In today’s world we have been trained to expect instant gratification.

More often than not, we all want for something. And we want that something as soon as possible.

This is a result of our “western mindset”. This mindset is spilling over into the treasured practice of yoga.

A few months ago I met with a friend and told him that I was going to “be a yoga teacher.” I didn’t then, and still don’t practice yoga six days a week. How could I be a “teacher” if I am not a true student? Honestly, I let the “western mindset” get to me. I sometimes think God will hand me things overnight. I’m writing these words to emphasize to myself that practice is the goal.

All around the world, pop-up yoga studios are certifying “yoga teachers” in as little as 15 to 30 days. A studio hands someone a certificate and that person is considered qualified to instruct you based on what they could have picked up in two weeks. What ever happened to the guru-student relationship? What happened to waking up at 4am to meet your guru for practice? What happened to learning from a lineage of teachers? People travel to India for a month thinking that the keys to yoga will be handed to them. Why?

“Hi, do you guys offer teacher training?”  This phrase would never be uttered a thousand years ago. I heard a story of a guru who made a perspective student walk to his house at 4 o’clock every morning for 100 days straight before he let the student practice with him. Today, many people in our western society are bypassing the lessons learned from respected yoga gurus of the past.  Do people truly believe yoga is something that can be fully understood in less than a month? Streamlined yoga instructors are trying to sell yoga. The truth is that a lot of us are being sold yoga from “teachers” who don’t practice themselves.

We are all students of this world. We are all amazing sources of Love. We might as well inhale, exhale and enjoy the practice of yoga.

Yoga is a transformative process. It’s a meditation. It’s a practice. Most importantly, it’s a union. It’s a realization that when you come to the mat, when you practice asana, you come to unite yourself with everything.

I don’t mean to be negative. I’m of the belief that some yoga is better than no yoga, but I want to help myself (and potentially help you) by reinforcing that the practice is the tapas.

True practitioners can help slow this world down a bit. You can certainly help me. Together, we can help everyone realize that we are already in heaven and that no matter how fast we want success, it’s all coming. Especially if we let life evolve and come to us. Remember, this too shall pass.

Be patient. Let’s gently keep telling ourselves to remember the niyama of santosha (contentment).

Practice life patiently, and all is coming.

Shanti. Shanti. Shanti. Peace. Peace. Peace.