where you have access to unlimited choices. Some of
these choices are made consciously, while most are made
unconsciously. The best way to understand and maximize
the use of karmic law is to become consciously aware of
the choices you make in every moment.
Whether you like it or not, everything that is hap-
pening at this moment is a result of the choices you’ve
made in the past. When you make choices unconsciously,
you don’t think they are choices, and yet they are. If you
step back a moment and witness the choices you are
making, then in just this act of witnessing you take the
process from the unconscious into the conscious realm. In
every situation, there is one choice out of the many
available that will create happiness for you as well as for
those around you. And when you make that one choice it
will nourish you and everyone else influenced by that
action.
Applied to your practice of yoga, the Law of Karma is
demonstrated as you consciously move through your pos-
tures aware of how there is a reaction for every action you
execute. If in your impatience you force yourself into a
pose that you are not fully ready to perform, your body/
mind will react, and the consequences of your straining
will generate feelings of strain within you. On the other
hand, when you move gracefully into the limits of each
pose with an attitude of gentleness and finesse, your
body/mind responds with effortlessness and ease.
Notice that by slowing down your movements, you
become more aware of the karmic consequences of your
choices. If your body is unusually uncomfortable the
morning after a yoga session, it is most likely the result of
your ignoring the Law of Karma. You probably pushed
58 The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga