One of the things I love to do at the end of a yoga class, when my students are settling into savasana, is to read them a poem. Sometimes the poems relate directly to yoga, other times, the connection is less obvious.

I found this poem, by the Pulitzer-prize winning poet Lisel Mueller, on page 112 of Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, edited by Billy Collins as an outgrowth of the Poetry 180 Project which he established with The Library of Congress during his tenure as Poet Laureate of the United States:

Love Like Salt

It lies in our hands in crystals
too intricate to decipher

It goes into the skillet
without being given a thought

It spills on the floor so fine
we step all over it

We carry a pinch behind each eyeball

It breaks out on our foreheads

We store it inside our bodies
in secret wineskins

At supper, we pass it around the table
talking of holidays by the sea

I sincerely hope that Lisel Mueller will forgive me for the derivation that has resulted in the title of this blog, but after considering many names — some cute, some Sanskrit, some ponderous — I decided this one best describes what I’d like this blog to express.

So many people think of yoga as an “activity” – something to be done during a class, or for a hour a week, or 20 minutes a day. They bargain with their practice, thinking it’s something that should be done to be virtuous, or is to be done only when they need something – to feel more limber or less stressed or to have a tighter butt. In my opinion, this is missing the point – and most importantly, the joy – of a yoga practice.

Yoga can take many forms. There are six basic categories, encompassing physical yoga (hatha yoga), devotional yoga (bhakti yoga), the yoga of good works and right livelihood (karma yoga), study and knowledge (jhana yoga), meditative yoga (raja yoga), and tantra, which, although it has gained “buzz” as a word associated with esoteric sexual practices, means (in the simplest distillation) living life in union with the Divine.

So, yoga can be in how we work and study, how we communicate with others and show affection and appreciation. It can be in how we purchase and prepare food, in the music we choose to listen to, and in what we watch and read. It can be in our daily efforts to see the Divine – in others, in the world around us, and in ourselves.

Yoga can be sprinkled through our life, like grains of salt are across our food.

Story has it that Beryl Bender Birch, author and yoga teacher (and sometimes called “The Mother of Power Yoga”), was once asked if she practiced yoga every day. She answered “I practice some yoga every day.” Her interviewer didn’t ask a complicated question, but her answer is complicated. Consider it in light of all the ways of practicing yoga that I’ve described, and you’ll probably realize that, with some effort, you can be practicing your own yoga every day.

Make your choices mindfully. Communicate mindfully. Choose to live with an open heart and you’ll be on the yogic path.