Transformation & Change

By Ashley Benson, ERYT-200, YACEP

If you’ve been practicing yoga for a while, you may have said, or heard a fellow yogi say, “Yoga changed my life.” For many of us, yoga has become a vehicle for deep transformation and change in our lives. In the month of March, as the Florida winter begins to transition into Spring the themes of transition, change and transformation are alive in Mother Nature.

It is helpful to look at the similarities and differences between the concepts of change and transformation. In everyday life, we may use these concepts interchangeably, yet from a yogic perspective they have quite different meanings and application.

Change can be thought of as external actions or influences that cause something to become different. We can think of change in terms of habits or lifestyle changes. We begin to attend yoga classes, make changes in our daily routine that incorporate meditation, breath work, mindfulness. We make external changes to our lives. These changes lead to transformation.

Transformation can be thought of as an internal process, where belief systems, emotional patterns and mental habits begin to naturally shift from within. This transformation also occurs at the level of the energy body, the way our life force, prana, moves inside of our being.

It is here that we can see how external changes begin to create inner transformation. And at the same time the inner transformation supports the external changes. Change is from the outside inward, and transformation is from the inside outward.

We often begin by making willful changes in our lives that require effort and discipline. Eventually the effort and discipline begin to create an inner shift. Change moves from the outside inward. Then the inner transformation of our thoughts, emotions, and energetic patterns brings about effortless transformation of our external lives. Transformation moves from the inside outward.

Has yoga changed your life? Has it transformed you from the inside out? Send us a message and let us know! We’d love to hear from you.