Since the yoga studio I like closed last year, I’ve been (kinda sorta) practicing with the Yoga Download site at home, which means I’m on their email list.

This past week I’ve felt anywhere from indecisive to stuck to thwarted on a lot of things–bathroom remodel plans, what new car to get and when, what my life is going to look like in 2, 5, or 10 years. So when I got the Yoga Download weekly email that started like this, it was pretty perfect:

All too often in yoga and in life, we become attached to our desired outcome…We become so focused on the end goal, that we lose our presence in the process. Instead, transformation becomes a mental concept; yet another thing that we overthink or project into the future, yet another item on a never-ending list of to-dos.

What if instead, we were to simply be present, trust the process, and detach from outcome? It may be deceptively simple, but putting this little mantra into action can be profoundly helpful. It allows us to notice the subtle fruits of our labor that may otherwise go unrecognized. Along the way, we may see that sometimes, it’s one step forward and two steps back, but that’s okay because we trust that we are on a general upward trend.

Sure, you could say that it’s no surprise I got a hippie thought in a yoga email. But I got it when I needed to see it most. There are messages for us everywhere, even in marketing emails.