My class theme this morning was inspired by the events of my day yesterday. I met up with a childhood friend, Mary Angara Dreier, for a rooftop lunch at SoHo House Chicago. If you’ve never been or heard of it, it’s a pretty trendy, swanky members-only place where young execs, celebs, and creative geniuses of Chicago converge. I bet most of their income is equivalent to amount of down dogs I’ve done in my lifetime. But it was very cool. At one point I was thankful I decided NOT to wear yoga leggings. Whew! Anyway, that’s beside the point.

The real point is that I had this wonderful time with Mary, who happens to be one of those beautiful, inspiring, creative geniuses. She’s the mastermind, really this GREAT mind in this tiny little body (no joke!), behind Clout 5 Agency, a Chicago-based branding company that brings people together for the greater good. She believes your voice and your influence can make a difference, and her company helps to bring it to life. So, besides discussing how we would possibly collaborate, we had such deep, thoughtful discussions about Life. You know the kind—What is Life? Am I living the Life I should be? What do I do now that I’m in this new chapter of my Life? Is what I am doing enough? What is the answer?

So here’s this beautiful, intelligent, corporate guru asking me—this little yogi in the North Burbs who wears yoga pants for 12 hours out of day—to enlighten her. As I told her, I don’t have the answers. I did realize one thing, Mary is person of structure who needs A to follow B then C, and always seeking “something”. What that something is, who knows. She doesn’t even know, and that’s what can be perplexing at times. Thus, the Life questions. At one point, I asked myself, am I just naïve? Does my practice of Yoga stick my head in the clouds? Nope. I have the same questions and I can be structured, but I just don’t attach to them or have them rule my path in Life.

Later that evening, I decided to take a class with an instructor I’ve never been to before. The instructor was heavily Iyengar alignment-based, which I truly appreciate. However, this instructor was one of those militant Iyengar instructors—“Move your big toe a ¼ inch to the left…no, more, more….Now extend out of your middle finger and line it up a ½ inch to the right…almost, almost…ok there. Hold.” To prevent from really giving this instructor the middle finger (cuz its not yogic), I started to reflect on this yoga experience and how it related to my day. As much as I appreciate being in alignment, what if its just not what my body can do? Can’t that be ok?

Then it wasn’t until I saw yoga instructor Daren’s Friesen’s FB post this morning that it all came together. He posted a photo of a round peg faced with a square hole and a round hole. Well, lo and behold, that’s Life! Most people feel as if they are a square peg always trying to fit into a round hole. Forcing to find perfection when all it does is create frustration when it just won’t work.

A square peg forced into a round hole. 3D render with HDRI lighting and raytraced textures.

I realized I’m a round peg in a square hole!! My round peg fits but its ok if its not completely perfect. And that’s how I view my life on and off the mat. In fact, I appreciate that I have space around my square hole because some days I have space to fit perfectly, whether structured in my life or alignment in my body. And yet I have enough space to Be Enough.

In the end, I’m not even sure if all of this makes sense, but ultimately my message to you is: Be okay being a round peg in a square hole. In Maya Angelou’s words, “If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing YOU can be.” Namaste.