To All my “Bag Ladies”

why checking your bags at the door when you practice yoga ain’t helping

If you’ve ever practiced yoga at a studio, you’ve probably been invited to “check your baggage at the door.” This is intended to be a cute way of inviting students to leave their cares behind before stepping on their mat. But instead of lightening the load, leaving your bags at the door may actually add to it.

Whether new to yoga or at it for a while, most of us carve out time for our practice not in spite of all thing things going on in our lives, but because of them.

Yes, we absolutely need a break from panning through our to-do lists in a perpetual panic because something is still unfinished. Or replaying that presentation at work that didn’t go as planned. Or a break from the constant chatter of our inner critic. However, when our baggage is heavy because we’re dealing with day-to-day or deep stress, processing grief or trauma, navigating the end of a friendship or relationship, or other circumstances—suddenly and immediately releasing our grip on those bags may feel like an impossible ask. Like Ms. Badu says in one of my absolute favorite [yoga playlist] songs of all time, Bag Lady, “girl I know, sometimes it’s hard and we can’t let go.”

Instead of feeling like you need to check your baggage wherever you unroll your mat, whether that’s a commercial studio or your living room, it’s okay to bring it with you. When we feel empowered to show up as we are, with all our bags in tow, that’s when the yoga magic happens.

Let me break it down…

While “checking our baggage” so that we can plow through poses may temporarily get our minds off of the issues we’re facing, without the breath and the mindfulness we cultivate using it, those poses won’t do much. Most likely, you’ll spend your energy trying to pretend the proverbial baggage doesn’t exist (because you “sat it at the door” and what not), then feel frustrated when you’re not able to “stick” a balancing pose or touch your toes. Then the inner critic ignites and likely takes your mind right out that door with your baggage, though your body may still be on your mat. So while you may have made some shapes or broke a sweat if that was your goal, it won’t take long once your practice is over to feel like the weight of the world is right back on your shoulders (or in your hips🙋🏽‍♀️).

As poet S.C. Carter (aka Jay-Z) says, “you can’t heal what you never reveal.”

If we allow ourselves to be present with our challenges on our mats and actually feel our feelings, we can slowly start to loosen the grip they have on our minds and bodies. Our breath becomes a tool to help us identify the physical areas that these challenges or emotions occupy, allowing us to feel into and clear space in these areas instead of avoiding them.

And rather than igniting our inner critic when a pose doesn’t go our way, the mindfulness and presence we’re cultivating can help us free ourselves from the grips of perfection or pushing ourselves beyond our limits in attempt to change things that we cannot actually control, too.

In essence, these are practices of non-attachment and non-harming; two of yoga’s five personal restraints that certainly help us be kinder to ourselves during any and all of life’s twists and turns.

Pack light

Let’s be honest: yoga is not going to single-handedly heal wounds, right wrongs, or solve all of your problems. But it can teach us how to “pack light” if we allow it to. Only by bringing our baggage with us can yoga truly help us “get out of our minds and into our bodies” (as the saying goes), and learn how to feel safe doing so. By showing up for our whole selves as our whole selves, we can slowly start to unpack our bags, one breath at a time. And no matter how long the unpacking process takes, maybe each time we leave our mat with bags a little lighter than those we might have otherwise reclaimed in their original state at the door.