I hope the beginning of your 2026 has been gentle.

And if it hasn’t, what do you need it to be for yourself right now?

Practicing yoga is not about mastering yoga. In yoga, the subject is you. It’s the practice of becoming aware  of what it feels like to be you.

Mindful attention gradually reveals how your personality expresses itself through your body.

Practicing yoga helps your body slow down.

When the body slows down, your thoughts do too.

Practicing yoga creates rhythmic breath.

When the breath becomes steady, the nervous system begins to settle.

Practicing yoga roots us in the present moment. Awareness leads to presence—simple, though not always easy.

Practicing presence is not something we do, it’s something we allow.

When body, mind, and breath are held together in the present moment, we become available to Presence.

And in Presence, we remember we are whole.

David Benner writes:

The journey into God that is at the core of Christ-following leads to the discovery that the foundation of our very being is our being-in-God. Increasingly we come to recognize the inextricable interconnection of our self-in-God and God’s self-in-us. This doesn’t involve either a loss of our self or becoming God. It involves becoming more and more fully the truth of our being in God. While our self is not God, it is the place where we meet God. There can therefore be no genuine spiritual transformation if we seek some external meeting place. God’s intended home is our heart, and it is meeting God in the depths of our soul that transforms us from the inside out. This is why the self is so important in the Christian transformational journey. It must be encountered, not bypassed. It must be embraced and deeply known if it is to be transformed.

The whole story demands that our focus be as much about knowing the truth of our self as it is about knowing the truth of God, and the knowing of the self that is involved in Christian spirituality is the knowing of self in relation to God. And the knowing of God’s self that is at the transformational core of Christian spirituality is a knowing of God in relation to my self.

—The Gift of Being Yourself

Your story began with an author who created you in love.

Yoga can be a gentle tool for becoming more aware of that story—in your mind, your heart, your body—all created with purpose and meaning.

It is not only about the postures. In truth, the poses are actually a remarkably small part of yoga.  They are simply access points into moment-to-moment awareness. They give us a way to notice what is happening while it is happening. And that kind of noticing is far more transformative (and interesting) than stretching muscles alone.

Breath is at the heart of yoga.

Breath prayer is something you can practice anywhere. It is a simple, one-breath remembrance of what is true. A chance for God to bring to our mind-heart the truth of the present moment and offering that truth back to God. They are prayed silently, internally.

God’s life and love in every breath.

As we breathe this way, the body begins to learns it—creating new neural pathways between body and mind. Breath prayers are adaptable. Breath prayer can be as simple as breathing in a word of Scripture, or naming what you long to receive from God and what you are ready to release. Name it to claim it. Name it to tame it.

God designed His breath to speak directly to your nervous system. You can’t think your way out of stress and anxiousness. But you can breathe your way toward calm and relaxed.

A simple practice:

Inhale: A word or phrase that turns your heart toward God

Exhale: A word or phrase that expresses your need, trust, or praise

Psalm 24:5 (VOICE)

“Ease me down the path of Your truth… I wait all day long, hoping, trusting in You.

Inhale: Gentle Jesus

Exhale: Ease me down the path of Your truth

Let your breath guide you back to your internal meeting place—your heart, at home in yourself, held in the sacred heart of Christ.