It seems we are a compartmentalized species. Our minds separate our spirituality from our business. Our emotions from our reason. Our politics from our morals. The examples go on and on. We also rationalize these things even as we see them. But the holy trinity of Yoga is body, mind, and spirit. Many of life’s mysteries and teachings come as a threesome, and Yoga is no different. So why do we tend to separate parts of ourselves from ourselves?

The study and practice of Yoga states that it aims for connecting, yoking, and uniting. It aims for recognizing and balancing opposites. The yin and yang of a practice teaches strength and flexibility. The whole practice and the teachings reflect on the consciousness of the spiritual and the material being connected. The self-study and inquiry that Yoga points to, tat twam asia-thou art that, allows us to bring every aspect of ourselves into awareness, and to bring that awareness into all of our actions and all of life. 

We may first need to observe the nature of our minds to understand how easily we compartmentalize ourselves and our actions. But once observed, the possibility exists for bringing the whole person into the ongoing balancing act that can become the meditation that creates the art of living. We are, after all, a whole person.