This past week, I was lucky enough to spend time with my yoga teacher, R. Sharath Jois, during his visit from India to New York City.

As those of you know who do yoga, it does not confer automatic enlightenment. In fact, it can sometimes appear to deter it—leading to an extraordinary amount of….well, if you were being kind you might say ‘self-analysis.’ If not, you might say ‘navel-gazing.’

When this occurs, it generally sounds like, “How was your practice? Well, this is how mine felt….and then X happened….and then Y happened….blah blah blah blah blah blah.”

Thankfully, each day after class, Sharath would speak to us for a few minutes regarding various aspects of yoga.

Again, thankfully, he delivered the following advice regarding talking about your practice.

“Do hard work. Don’t talk nonsense.”

This struck me as such excellent advice for both yoga practice, and life, that I thought I would pass it along to you.

And in the spirit of my beloved teacher (Always a man of few words: note, please, his advice regarding headstand. “Go up. Don’t come down.”) I am not going to elaborate further.

As always, he’s said it all.

Frances Cole Jones