I recently watched Shakti Mhi’s video, The Search for Self-Realization. In it, she talks about yoga as means of clarifying your perception of reality. However, she makes it clear that yoga is not the only means:

If you want to experience, you have to allow all possibilities to be here. It’s only when I don’t ask, and I don’t assume, and I don’t have hope… and I have nothing. This is the only time all possibilities will unfold themselves. So any form of practice can be dangerous. This is why you have to tell people, “Practice yoga, don’t hold onto it. Practice Tai Chi, don’t get addicted to it.” Because it’s a form. All forms are limited. If you practice yoga and you think realization will come only from yoga, you miss realization that could maybe happen on the toilet. Plop. “I got it!”

It’s easy to get so attached to our yoga practice that you look down upon people who don’t do yoga or even just practice a different style of yoga than we do.  Shakti’s message is a good reminder that yoga is not the only path to enlightenment, contentment, and a healthy body. Next time the temptation to “yogavangelize” becomes overwhelming, try seeking to understand non-yogis instead; maybe ask, “What do you do that make you feel most in touch with yourself? Most connected to your purpose?”