Recently my partner of six years and I made the decision to get married. In the swirl of congratulations, wedding planning and celebration we both began to feel very alone. The idea of marriage began to take on a life of its own and the permanency of it felt overwhelming. My parents divorced in my early twenties and that dose of reality had challenged any teenage ideas I had about romantic love. I decided that when I chose to get married I wanted to enter into it with presence and curiosity. But wedding magazines, advice from friends and family and reality shows about big-budget weddings can be confusing and doubt and fear about exactly what we were saying “yes” to crept its way in. How would our relationship change? Would we become stingy and mean and stop being friends? Would our vows feel heavy and permanent and impenetrable?
I brought this swirl of doubt to my yoga practice. As a long-time practitioner, I find that my yoga practice is often a microcosm for what I’m experiencing in my life. On this particular day, while practicing in my bedroom, I was struck with a bolt of awareness about the kind of…