Have you been keeping up with the Summer Olympics this week? Once again, I’m completely enamored, impressed, and inspired by these amazing athletes from around the globe. Their heartwarming stories of trials, failures, injuries, successes, and true dedication light me up and make me want to do and be better! 

And, of course, I see in these athletes something we yogis are always going for in our postures and daily lives: 

The balance of effort and ease, or sthira and sukha. 

It seems counterintuitive to look at the high level of effort and discipline it takes to become an elite athlete (or an elite anything) and think there is some ease there, but I believe there is. Just watch the swimmers. They are ALL IN with their physical and mental abilities. They are pushing to their absolute edge. At the end, they are panting and red. And yet…

There is such grace and beauty as they move through the water. There is no flailing. There is...