No Practice No Miracles

No practice no miracles.

Four words and I was stopped in my tracks. 

A little nugget of wisdom, a tiny bomb of truth, a flash of true perception.

No practice no miracles.

This short sentence was minding its own business in the middle of a caption of a wonderful photographer I follow on Instagram - Kristina Kashanova (aka @icreatelife) and it just spoke so loudly to me.

I've never been one for mantras. Mantra is a sanskrit word, literally meaning ‘a thought behind speech or action'. Yoga teachers often talk about the power that having one can have in your life. But I am more of an action first person. The thoughts behind those actions tend to be about the outcomes of the actions if truth be told.

But now I am thinking that I simply hadn't found the right mantra!

No practice no miracles.

I feel like this short short sentence encompasses my yoga story so neatly and perfectly. When I am holding and breathing in pincha mayurasana (forearm stand) or pressing my face to my shins in uttanasana (forward fold) I am experiencing what was once the impossible. The practice that I now live on an almost daily basis is truly a miracle to me. 

But the reason I am here living it, thriving because of it, is because of hours and hours and hours of practice. Logically I know that of course. But that practice feels like a miracle too. I never would have imagined a world where I could be this dedicated to something that didn't have an explicit result. Because I am that action-outcome focused person right?!

Yet my experience through yoga has taught me, has proved to me, that some of the best outcomes happen when you are focused on the process itself. On the steps that may or may not get you somewhere that you may or may not be aiming to go. Just show up. Just keep doing the things that you can do today. Don't worry about what it all may or may not lead to, or what may or may not result.

Just keep practicing.

And slowly the miracles will start happening.

A straight pincha. A long and flat uttanasana. The ability to get on your mat most days without blinking a eye. The sense of order in your life that means you can create the physical and mental space in your life for the practice. 

Because with all the practice, come all the miracles.

So this is my mantra. No practice no miracles. 

What's yours?