"This is the Truth, without a Doubt."

Sometimes I walk out of yoga practically vibrating with energy, buzzing and re-energized, ready to have a dance party with my 6 year old, in our PJ's, in the kitchen, while I also attempt to make dinner, clean up from lunch, and remind him we still have to do our reading practice.

I leave the yoga studio feeling like I've been revived, like I've hit the restart button and can take on anything.

This weekend I binged on that feeling at the Dirty South Yoga Festival. Taking 3 classes in 24 hours was not something I'd ever done (or imagined doing!) before.

I started the weekend on Saturday night with a "Sacred Elixir" class that began with meditation, followed by flow, mudra, yin and yoga nidra... and no, I still can't tell you the difference between mudra, yin and nidra, but I can tell you that I left feeling, as the girl who practiced next to me put it, "Blissed Out."

Sunday morning I made it downtown in time for my 10 a.m. class with a Starbucks in hand and was greeted by a super energetic, infectiously happy teacher, Lacey, who asked me if I'd brought some Starbucks for her too (Sorry, Lacey!). The class she helped lead was "Happy Yoga Flow" and I've never simultaneously had my butt kicked while feeling so dang happy all at once.

I ended the festival with a truly inspiring class led by my beloved Infinity Yoga teachers Jennifer Smith and Becky Nickerson. They "unpacked the Hathas" for a class full of yogis who wanted to learn more about the ancient yoga teachings of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.

Verse 66 really resonated with everyone in the room:

"Success is achieved neither by wearing the right clothes nor by talking about it. Practice alone brings success. This is the truth, without a doubt."

"THIS IS THE TRUTH, WITHOUT A DOUBT."

When reading this verse for the first time, Jennifer and Becky may have replaced "the right clothes" with "LuLuLemon" for some big laughs from the room. They lamented that too many people think practicing yoga is all about the right brand of pants, the perfect Instagram picture, the most stylish mat. But how in truth it's not about any of the above. It's about our own personal practice and working where we're at, wherever we're at.

"If you're practicing you're doing it! You're a yogi!" Jennifer preached, after railing on what yoga is not.

I fell in love with love with yoga not for the pants (although I could live in them, to be honest) but because of the peace, the stillness, the happy buzz I feel when I practice.

In the festival's Happy Yoga class, one of the teachers shared this quote and philosophy: "There is no way to happiness. Happiness IS the way." i.e. we already have happiness inside of us, we just need to learn how to find it. To be it.

The words reminded me of what Glinda the Good Witch tells Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz, "You've always had the power my dear. You just had to learn it for yourself." Remember? Dorothy had the power all along to transport herself back to Kansas, right there inside; she just needed to learn it for herself.

Our happiness is the same. It's right there within us and has been all along.

This is the Truth, without a doubt.

Namaste.

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