Beginnings, Endings, and the Breath: Finding Balance Through Yoga

Life has a way of weaving beginnings and endings together. This past month has held both for me. As Brandon and I moved our youngest into her new dorm, we closed an important chapter of our family life. On the very same day, my cousin, who feels more like a sister, gave birth to my new godson. Our home grew quieter, and at the same time, our hearts grew fuller.

It reminded me how life always holds both joy and sorrow, gain and loss, inhale and exhale. We cannot know joy without having known sorrow. We cannot feel grief without having first known love. The practice of yoga and the breath teaches us this truth in every cycle. Each inhale carries the energy of beginning, and each exhale offers the release of ending.

This new season for me, becoming an empty nester, has been a tender one. I feel the quiet, but I also feel the space opening up for new possibilities. More time for teaching yoga, more time for holding retreats, more time for exploring the call of my own practice.

Yoga practice has always shown me how to find balance through life transitions. What matters is not resisting the flow but honoring it. The transitions are where we learn the most. As I step into this next chapter, I am choosing to breathe deeply, to honor the endings, and to welcome the beginnings with openness and gratitude.

Wherever you are in your own season of life, may you remember that each breath holds both the ending and the beginning. And in that rhythm, we can find steadiness.