Learning to meet myself

 

Learning to Meet Myself

I woke before the world again.

Not because I was rushing, but because my body was ready.

I stepped onto the mat thinking I could move fast, skip steps, push ahead.

But the body didn’t follow urgency.

It asked me to arrive where I already was.

So I breathed.

I slowed.

And I met myself honestly.

Yoga keeps teaching me this:

there is no shortcut to presence.

No muscle can be forced open.

No breath can be rushed without consequence.

Regulation comes first.

Listening comes before movement.

As the practice deepens, something else sharpens—

my awareness of human behavior, including my own.

I notice when silence is wiser than speech.

I notice when observation must stay inward.

I notice how clarity doesn’t need defense.

There was a time I thought understanding required explanation.

Now I see it requires containment.

Not every truth needs a voice.

Some truths need grounding.

Yoga is teaching me restraint without repression.

Strength without force.

Stillness without withdrawal.

I’m learning that clarity doesn’t come from correcting the world.

It comes from regulating the body.

From honoring hunger without excess.

From respecting rest without guilt.

From letting situations pass without needing to name them.

I see more now because I speak less.

I trust myself more because I move slower.

I know where I stand, and that knowing is enough.

This journey is not loud.

It is precise.

It is quiet.

And it is mine.

— Yoruba Yogi