Building Faith

My morning is defined by a series of beeps. First, my alarm at 6am, then my timer at the end of meditation. Next, the kettle beeping when my water boils. Finally, there's the beep letting my husband know his tea has been steeped to perfection.

I trust these sounds every day. And, every day they happen, almost without fail, creating the faithful rhythm of my morning routine (which, by the way, is really worth creating if you don't have one.)

Beyond the beeps we rely on, there are so many other things we place our trust in every day. Just looking out my window, I see our recycling bin on the road. I trust it will be emptied because that's what happens every other Wednesday. It's snowing, and I trust the plows will be making their way down our road soon, because they always do. To say nothing of the faith I have that the sun will rise, that my daughter will wake from her bed, and on and on. Daily life is defined by the trust we have in so many things.

And, so it is in yoga. Faith, Shraddha, is one of the essential attributes to develop as students of these practices. 

According to The Bhagavad Gita, a persons' faith actually determines who they become:

"Our faith conforms to our nature, Arjuna. Human nature is made of faith. A person is what his faith is."

In Evolving Your Yoga, I write about how I had an initial faith in yoga, even before I really knew what it was all about. Something in me just KNEW this was a true path, and that it was MY path. 
 
But beyond that initial conviction, what I've come to rely on in yoga as "true" has come largely from my own experience, from trying things out, and from harvesting and building on the lessons learned in practice. Because it's concrete and experiential, my faith in yoga has become stronger over time. 
 
This is true on so many levels. 
 
I know, for example, that whatever happens in my meditation it leaves me more centered, connected with myself and in my heart. 
 
I know that when I do Jatara Parivartanasana in a particular way it never fails to leave my funny SI joint feeling good. 
 
I know that resting in the space at the end of my exhalation grounds me. And on and on.

Have you ever stopped to consider:

When it comes to yoga, in what do you have faith?

Where does your faith come from?

Looking back on your journey in yoga, how have you become what you have faith in?