All things are our relatives. What we do to ourselves, we do to everything. -black ELK

Dharma - the first aim in life - as written in ancient yoga texts, is the action you take to live your beliefs.

Simply put, it is walking the walk.

This is the belief that I was thinking about this week: my world is a reflection of my heart.

The love in my life is directly related to the love in my heart, the drama and chaos in my life is related to the fear.

The beauty I see in the world is directly tied to my ability to see and know my own beauty.

We are as open minded as we are open hearted. We cannot look on the world without judgement and fear without open-hearted compassion.

We can cultivate fear and hate as readily as we can cultivate love. This is our choice. Each day we get up and choose which we will feed and allow to grow within us, within the relationships around us.

Yoga is the physical practice of matching the insides with the outsides. It is a practice of letting go and opening. It works from the outside in. Our bodies respond to the efforts that we make and our minds begin to come along for the ride.

What we receive, we are able to give. We cannot give what we do not have.

We develop patience as we hold a posture…we stand taller, more balanced, our chest lifts…we become aware of our mental chatter, of our breath, of the placement of our feet on the ground.

We feel gratitude at our own efforts.

With our breath we begin the subtle art of self love by simply quieting our mind. We become a little easier on ourselves.

We glimpse our own magnificence and we see it reflected in the world around us.

What we do to ourselves, we do to everything.