Writ­ing Christ­mas or Chanukah cards offers a time to reflect, count your bless­ings, and recon­nect with friends and fam­ily.

A mind­ful yoga prac­tice can also help to shed light on the peo­ple, sit­u­a­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties that have made a real dif­fer­ence over the past year.

On the longest day of the year, heart-warm­ing activ­i­ties like these dis­pel the dark­ness, and coun­ter­act the chill of win­ter.

While reflect­ing on the high­lights of 2011, I’m grate­ful for the won­der­ful yoga teach­ers who serve in Seat­tle and nearby yoga stu­dios.

Yes­ter­day was an exam­ple of one teacher’s gen­eros­ity, and her com­mit­ment to yoga’s teach­ings…

Her hus­band was in the hos­pi­tal recov­er­ing from surgery, so she had can­celled the morn­ing class to spend the day with him. But she had no way to notify the stu­dents who had pre­reg­is­tered for her class online…

She showed up at the stu­dio to do a few sun salu­ta­tions before rejoin­ing her hus­band at the hos­pi­tal — only to dis­cover two stu­dents wait­ing out­side the stu­dio for class to begin. (I had dri­ven half an hour in rush hour traf­fic to get to class on time…)

Sharing the Blessings of Yoga

So she invited us to join her in a set of sun salu­ta­tions, a prac­tice she needed to ground her­self before head­ing to the hos­pi­tal. For us it was not a class, but a yoga-cen­tered oppor­tu­nity to open our hearts, breathe deeply, and express the joy of being alive, sur­rounded by peo­ple we cher­ish.

It was a beau­ti­ful prac­tice, a won­der­ful gift from a yogini very pressed for time, but will­ing to share her yoga prac­tice with the two of us. A true yoga expe­ri­ence…

Her gen­eros­ity yes­ter­day was a reminder of the endur­ing gifts that yoga teach­ers are eager to share, with those who are ready and will­ing to receive them.

Namaste.