What Inspires You?

Every Saturday morning I take a yoga class at LuLuLemon. A new addition to the class is a seven year old girl. She has been coming with her mother for the past few weeks. Today, near the end of the class the instructor asked the child (in front of 40 adults, mind you), "What do you like about yoga?" She thought for a moment and then calmly said, "Yoga relaxes me." Such a simple answer, but as they say, "Out of the mouths of babes."

Relaxation is one of the benefits of yoga. There are so many. Katy, our instructor, talked today about inspiration, and asked us who or what inspired us, and what does inspiration mean? This was very meaningful to me, for I had the entire practice to focus on this question. Who inspires you and why and what inspires you?

Katy said something else that I connected with. She said to hang around people or things that inspire you. You will be energized just by being around others that you find inspirational. It's contagious. Your connection with these people or things will become part of you, just by being around them. If you are creative, hang around other creative souls. It will get your creative juices flowing. The ocean is one of the things that inspires me.

I will often sit at the beach and meditate. Just by being near the power, the beauty, the ebb and flow and the life that lives within the ocean gives be an inner strenth. I could do the same meditation in my home, but the results would not be the same. Stay near those that inspire you.

Inspiration comes to us each in a different way. Sometimes it's a parent, grandparent or teacher that inspires. Sometimes it is a "thing," like the ocean or the Grand Canyon or a beautiful work of art. Often the people we find inspirational are not famous. They're just ordinary people living ordinary lives.

So who inspires you? Think about it. Tell them they inspire you. It will change you both. Today at the end of class Katy told the little girl in front of everyone that she inspired her. I could see on the child's face what hearing that meant to her. She was beaming.