Yoga doesn’t have to be hard. And fitness doesn’t have to be a grind. In fact, "yoga fitness" can be one of the most pleasurable and ease provoking journeys of your life.

Yes, certain poses (asanas) are more difficult than others. And yes, doing the work to refine your health requires effort. But poses alone are not yoga. And effort in itself doesn’t necessarily result in health. Body Integration simplifies all this. The yogis out there who can bend their bodies into a pretzel with little effort are far fewer than those of us who desperately need relief from life’s most basic source of suffering — residual tension. And comparing ourselves to those yogis only serves to deflate motivation, inspiration, and generally results in false narratives in the clients I work with.

This practice is designed to work with any body in any condition. My dad was one of my lab rats in the early versions of the program. He’s confined to a wheel chair 99 percent of the time and has a partially severed spinal cord between the C4 and C5 vertebra. The refinements are instantaneous. From struggling to stand one moment, to taking a moment to integrate the body-breath connection the next and begin to stand, and transition himself from the bed to the chair the next. The results are immediate. Trauma that has been locked in the body, and the corresponding emotional static, is the single biggest source of suffering in the world.

This theory is designed to be specific to your body. Your trauma. And move you in the direction of your freedom. As a synthesis of yoga, tai chi, and exercise physiology, this theory of body integration acts as paradigm of mindfulness endeavoring toward enhancing your emotional resilience toward being more heartful. A shift in your relationship with your body. It’s about learning to love the body you’re in, and listening to the wisdom the body is offering you to shift into a healthier, more fit, more integrated way of living.