Reinvent Yourself Through Yoga

What does it take to reinvent yourself? Perhaps a better question to start with is, why would you even want to? Sure, maybe you wouldn’t mind shedding a few pounds. Perhaps a bit less stress would be nice too … and no doubt you’d be happy to have a little more free time in your life. But these things surely don’t require a complete personal overhaul, do they?



Nobody is perfect. The main point of our lives here on this earth is not even to attain perfection. It is to learn through our experiences and to use that wisdom to grow, to evolve, and to make changes for the better.

Now that is something that we can all definitely do, can’t we? So why do we often have such a hard time doing it?

Because we get stuck in a rut; stuck in a routine way of thinking and acting.

For instance, you’ve probably driven the exact same route to work everyday for the past five years and never given it a second thought.

What happens, though, when there is road construction one day and you’re forced off of your usual course? Frustration? Anxiety?
Do you get downright upset?

Maybe it made you late for work, but that’s not the point here. The point is that there are probably several different ways for you to arrive at your destination on time, but you’ve gotten stuck on one specific route, and you just don’t like to veer from it.

In effect, that’s exactly how we live most of our lives. We’ve gotten used to typical ways of doing things and usual ways of viewing things, and that keeps us from seeing all the infinite possibilities we have all around us in each and every moment.

How to Break the Habit?

Reinvent yourself, that’s how.

But wait, getting back to the fact that you may only be looking to shed a few pounds or get rid of some stress, isn’t all this reinventing yourself talk a bit of overkill?

No, in fact it’s not, as the following story might help to illustrate …

When I was younger I came across a quote that stirred something within me. The saying was:

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

I wrote it out in big letters on a piece of paper and taped it to the back of my bedroom door. Everyday, when I got up and headed out into the world, it was the first thing I saw. At the end of each day, it reminded me once again.

… And over time I began to feel the truth of this simple little statement - the truth that I really am the architect of everything I have and of everything that happens to me.

I began to travel the world. Over a 7 year period, I passed through over 50 countries, all the while playing with this whole reinvent yourself idea.

At some point during my travels, it dawned on me that I didn’t have to be “ME” anymore.

I didn’t have to keep my same old attitudes toward things that happened around me.

Things did not always have to be exactly the way I wanted them to be. I decided it was time to leave the old baggage at the next airport.

Being a thousand miles from home, in a place where I was virtually anonymous, reinventing myself seemed strangely easy.

One day I could be the most patient person on the planet … and see what happens.

The next I could be the friendliest person in town … and see what happens.

The day after that, I could simply go with the flow, no matter what … and just see what happens!

And what happened astounded me! Opportunities to see and do things that I would never even have imagined before sprung up constantly. I saw that, although things did not always turn out like I thought I wanted them to, they often turned out in a way that brought something new, unforeseen, and exciting into my life.

I realized that when I stopped doing what I always did, I got different results! The yogis knew this principle well. They called it karma, the simple law of cause and effect. It was my first real profound yogic lesson in life!

Reinvent Yourself, Through Yoga.

Taking some yoga classes to lose a few pounds or to calm your nerves is a great idea. But remember that the reasons why you have these issues to deal with in the first place won’t magically vanish just through the practice of a few yoga asanas or yoga breathing techniques.

In yoga, we have a potent tool to reinvent yourself. It’s called svadyaya, or self-study, and it’s through this essential practice that we conquer our problems once and for all.

As my dear teacher Meenaskshi Devi Bhavanani once reminded me, “without svadyaya, there is NO YOGA!”

This process of inner inquiry reveals to us that everything in our lives, from the state of our relationships, to our physical health, and everything in between, exists because of what we think and how we act and react. It makes us understand that if we want to change our lives, then WE, ourselves, MUST CHANGE!

So the next time you’re forced to follow a detour on the way to work, try thinking

“This is my lucky day! I’m being forcing to break out of my routine and to see another way!

Sure, you might be late for work, but you’ll be a better person for it!