Living Your Yoga Quotes

“To cultivate empathy means to see the world through the eyes of another without judgement, without trying to "fix" it, without needing it to be different. It is acceptance independent of agreement, understanding without any implied coercion for oneself or the other to change. There is also no sense of wanting to "educate" the other person about how their perspective is wrong and ours is right.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Now, well beyond my teens, I feel that there is no such thing as wasted love. Any love that we experience holds great power - the power to transform both us and those we love. In fact, without love we cannot be transformed.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“I suggest that, before speaking or taking some other action, you first ask yourself these questions: Is it necessary? Is it true? Is it nonharming? If you can answer yes to all these questions, it may be okay to proceed. If not, you must weigh what is the right action in the situation.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Choice is at the heart of service.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“For something to be funny, it has to have an element of truth: lies are not funny. So”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“If you notice that you have a strong desire to be right, try not venturing an opinion the next time someone else expresses one.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“This practice can be done both on and off the yoga mat. It is difficult but rewarding beyond belief. The next time you feel yourself caught in the grip of attachment, such as wanting something to turn out a certain way, take time out—right then and there—to notice what is happening in your body. How does your belly feel? Has your breathing changed? Is your jaw tight? Your forehead drawn? Notice your bodily sensations. They are the manifestations of your attachment.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“So if you ask yourself from what exactly are you to be detached, the only possible answer is that you are to give up your attachment to the way you think things are. When you do, you get out of your own way and”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“MANTRAS FOR DAILY LIVING ​I give myself fully to each moment. ​Discipline is quality, not quantity. ​I can always make a choice. ​There is enough time. ​My yoga practice is discipline in action.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Commit yourself to doing what is possible. Make a list of what you have to do tomorrow; eliminate activities that are unnecessary, and reschedule those that can and should be postponed”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“She interpreted discipline as doing what was possible with consistency. I had interpreted discipline as quantity. I realized that I thought two hours of yoga practice indicated a disciplined life, whereas five minutes did not. In time, I came to realize her wisdom: Do what you can and do it fully.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“the answers are within me. ​Life is practice, practice is life. ​I commit to living my life fully in this moment.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“MANTRAS FOR DAILY LIVING ​I am my own authority. ​My life is a work in progress. ​I desire wholeness.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Abiding Practice can remind us that there is nothing we need for wholeness that does not already exist within us.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“It is our dedication to living with open hearts and our commitment to the day-to-day details of our lives that will transform us.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“To practice yoga in the deepest sense is to commit to developing awareness by observing our lives: our thoughts, our words, and our actions. There”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“mantra is something that helps you to transcend ordinary ways of thinking. These are meant to be your life-affirming companions throughout the day. You might say that each is a modern-day sutra.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“to practice is to pay attention to your whole life: your thoughts, your bodily sensations, and your speech and other actions.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Perhaps it means that we are, in every moment, to remember the whole, to remember the gift of life, to remember the preciousness of every second. When we do this remembering, something shifts inside us. When we do this remembering, we talk differently, we act differently, and we treat self and others differently. When we keep our awareness on this moment with gratitude, we increase our ability to choose how we act and how we interact with the world.
To worship is to remember the sacred, however we conceive of it.
... When we slow down and open our heart and mind, we realize that we can't conclusively answer any of the really big questions about existence, especially questions of meaning. Not that we should stop trying! But slowing own and opening up allows us to enter a state of wonderment and humility in the face of the vastness of creation. This state is one of worship, a silent and embodied worship that is not necessarily shaped by specific ritual. Rather it is shaped by our intention and our willingness to understand on a profound level our small place in the Universe. This embodied worship allows our kinship with all beings and all of nature to become more than just apparent to our conscious mind. This kinship is now lived from our very cells. To experience this level of joy is not only to worship it is also to become worship.
... You could say that to worship is to invite the sacred to fill our body, mind, and soul, to surrender to the great mystery, however we experience it and whatever name we give it. The great benefit of this willingness to invite the sacred in is that it helps us feel healed and whole in that moment. When we worship in this broad way, we surrender our struggling ego and mind to the wholeness of creation and thus feel a little less burdened, a little less overwhelmed, a little less afraid.
... Worship is rather an internal shift stimulated by the external activity that we call ritual. To worship is to assume a new relationship with yourself and all creation - with God. To worship is to be willing to be unsure, unresolved, to admit how much we don't know and will never know.
I invite you, dear reader, to be open to daily worship, to set aside any narrow interpretation of what worship is. Instead, allow yourself to imagine the possibility of creating a continuous conversation with the sacred. That is the path of the mystic, and it can live as a comfortable companion in a secular life. Worship is the music of the soul and as much is the ultimate universal language. In the end, to worship is to acknowledge life on the deepest level. Perhaps life itself is the ultimate prayer, the ultimate worship.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“... the only thing I was to do while living was to love everyone. That, she let me know, is the purpose of life.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“... I consciously closed down my energy. He instantly left me alone. I learned a powerful lesson that day. When you open up your heart, it can be out of pride. Had I been wiser, I would have realized that it would be better to keep my energy to myself unless I was truly the loving person that I thought I was. Vulnerability is not an excuse for forgetting to honor the appropriateness of sharing love. Learning to share the deep opening of your heart is life's most important lesson. But it needs discrimination as its partner.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“When you react, you are not in a state of love. When you can love without expectation, you are in a state of pure love. What is usually declared to be love is not. Rather, it is need, or fear, or desire for power over another person. Love in its purest sense is not based upon what you get from the relationship, but on what the relationship allows you to give. The depth of your love is not reflected in what the other makes you feel, but in your willingness to give of yourself. Love's job is to lead you to intimacy with what is enduring in yourself and in others. Whether this connection lasts for seconds or for decades, love is not wasted. Through it, you have been transformed. ...
I am not recommending that you accept the actions of others, even those you love, without discrimination. ... let only those things pass through the net that are life affirming. ... never discard the net. It is a reminder of your obligation to yourself to be discriminating. Without it, you may miss the opportunity to love yourself.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Sometimes I notice my yoga students practicing their less-than favorite poses with a ho-hum attitude. At the moments, I remind them that although yoga is powerful, it cannot transform us unless we love it. When we love, we are receptive to the other. When we love, we are vulnerable. Although being vulnerable can be frightening, it is also the doorway to the ultimate freedom.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“[C]hange comes first and foremost from the process of paying meticulous attention to a thought. When we do, we have a greater chance of separating from it, a process that I call dis-identification. This means that we may continue to have the thought but realize that it is only a thought, that is a neurological-biochemical event: it is not who we are.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Am I suggesting that we no longer try to achieve our goals? Absolutely not. It is not accomplishment that is the problem. The problem is the belief that accomplishments are the solution to an aching soul. When my children were young, I asked them for lists of what they wanted for Christmas. ... I tried to buy the exact gifts that my children requested. I strove to give my children what they longed for because I wanted them to realize that they could have the material things that seemed so important and still be unhappy. If they never got what they wanted, it would be easy to blame their unhappiness on that. I reasoned that if my kids received the gifts they wanted (again, within limits), they would have a better chance of learning to find satisfaction other than in material goods. As my children matured, they began to ask for gifts that could not be found in a store.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Truthfulness includes the small things that no one but you would ever know about. ... I also realized that I could not lecture on truthfulness and clarity and at the same time lie about my income (or anything else). It is in the nitty-gritty details of your life that you live your yoga.
... I told her that if I used one I would be sending our children a message: It is okay to break the law (or lie) as long as you don't get caught. To do this, I would not be modeling integrity, so I reluctantly declined to purchase a radar detector. ... [I]f I want to live a truthful life, that choice of truthfulness must be part of the decisions that are worth a penny as well as those that are worth a million dollars. ... the results of becoming fully entrenched in the truth: You cannot say anything that does not come true. In other words, if you are living the truth, then you cannot lie-because you are the truth. Everything you say comes true because you and the truth are one. Learning to speak from your place of truth is one of the most difficult - and one of the most important - things you can do in life. It is worth it because it frees you from the separation that lying creates, and it simultaneously supports others in living and speaking their truths.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“... [T]ruth has at least three levels. The first is a basic communication that we seek in our daily lives, that is, telling the truth about what we see, what we feel, and what we need. And we want others to do the same for us. ... What we see, feel, and need is not always clear to us nor does it always feel safe safe for us to express. ... I suffer just knowing that I've told a lie, and all lies separate me from myself and from others. ...
Integrity is internal honesty. It is telling the truth when no one would ever know. Integrity is refusing to tell a lie for self or for others. ...
One of the most powerful understandings about truth that I have learned is that although telling or hearing the truth may help lift a weight from our shoulders, it may simultaneously break our hearts. Telling the truth is often not easy in the short run; it is, however, infinitely valuable in the long run.
To lie requires that you turn away from yourself and others, and that creates misery. Living stay is learning to make conscious choices about truthfulness in daily living.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“How do you honor the spirit of karma yoga and also honor your own needs? ... [Y]ou can come to karma yoga by determining what is possible for you right here and right now. You can assess your physical health, energy level, and abilities. You can say no if that is more truthful than a resentful yes. You can notice when you get internal messages that you are helping in order to gain power, or recognition, or love. ... When you serve yourself, you make it possible to serve others. And when you serve others, you acknowledge your interdependence with all of life. ... What kind of servant are you: resentful and manipulative, or joyful and inspiring?”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“Greed presents itself as the longing for both the material and the nonmaterial, especially wanting more than is needed. However, whatever you stockpile - be it diamonds, big houses, fame, money, proficiency at advanced yoga poses, or less flashy things, you will inevitably encounter two certainties. First, ... all will be lost. Second, these things in and of themselves will never satisfy your cravings, which are expressions of your feelings of fear and emptiness. You see, sometimes we temporarily lose our way, becoming convinced that if we acquire this thing or that skill, we will finally become acceptable to ourselves and to the world. In our fear, we have forgotten that we are already whole.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

“I wanted them to realized that there is enough time, enough love, and certainly enough apple pie in life ... I believed that the cause of many of the world's ills could be directly connected to greed, and that I thought it was crucial that children learn from an early age that there is enough of what they need.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life