5 ways Yoga teaches us to Roll with the Punches

1. Yoga teaches us to sit back and enjoy the ride, to simply let go. So many things are out of our control that if we really think about it, it's ridiculous to try and control every aspect of our lives. Being a mother of three crazy children, I have realized that I have very little control over how things will turn out, short or long term. While being a great planner is useful, to get as much done in one day as humanly possible, being able to happily adapt to changing circumstances is a much more useful skill to develop. Yoga will teach you that.

2. Yoga teaches us perseverance. Some yoga poses can be quite difficult to say the least yet with time, patience and practice, our body and mind changes to give us the skills we need to master the pose. If we can learn to persevere through our yoga practise, we can take this into the rest of our lives and survive the tough times patiently.

3. Yoga teaches us awareness of our mind and body. With awareness we can listen to our thoughts, detach ourselves from those thoughts and become an observer. As we begin to examine those thoughts we realize how silly many of them are. If you sit down and really think about your responses to life's challenges, you will start to see that being angry or upset about things is probably not helpful to the situation. We learn with yoga to control our emotions instead of our emotions controlling us.

4. Yoga teaches us to use our breath. No matter what the situation, taking a breath gives you some space in your mind to think more clearly and put things in perspective. Control of the breath is one of the most fundamental and powerful teachings of yoga. So, next time life throws you into something difficult, take a breath right down into your belly to clear out your chattering thoughts and slowly look at the big picture. Ground your feet into the floor, or better still, the earth, lift your head, open your chest and breath in deeply. Remind yourself of your strength and beauty.

5. Yoga teaches us compassion. Many of our problems stem from interactions with other people. Through compassion we can see things from the other persons point of view. We can learn that other people have problems too and the way that they have treated us may be because of the ways others have treated them in their lifetime. To break the cycle we must learn to have compassion for those who have hurt us and in turn find happiness within our hearts.