In a yoga practice we often find ourselves in downward facing dog during a sun salutation.  The instructor might say “walk, step, or hop to the top of the mat.”  So what is all that hopping all about?  Well, it is the jumping, or springing forward, of yoga.  It takes a lot of core strength (I refer to it as the engine or the “gas”) and it takes something else: you must shift your gaze to see where you are going.

In my life at the moment I’m kind of treading water.  I haven’t committed or made progress in a few areas because I am waiting for puzzle pieces to fall into place, or I might not have exactly scoped out what I want the next step to look like.  It’s pretty common, I’m sure you can relate.  But the elements of a jump forward on the mat also applies to our lives.  Most importantly, the internal gaze forward.  We are so very busy and otherwise consumed that we often don’t give ourselves permission to look up, look forward, and see what it is that we’d like to pounce upon.  It’s a very important step because we want to be poised for the jump and need to ask ourselves some hard questions.

Once you fully engage the core and commit, the jump isn’t hard to do….also not unlike the moving forward and onward in your everyday life.  They say luck is at the intersection of preparedness and opportunity.  Finding the internal gaze, your next step, sets you up for the opportunity when it arises.

Happy springing!