My honey and I have a long-running joke that involves giving people autobiographical book titles… because… it’s funny.

It started with my dad, whose life just feels like it demands an autobiography. We decided it should be “A Steve S. Story: By the Skin of His Teeth.” Which, if you know him… is just a nod-your-head-and-chuckle kind of moment.

Once we had Dad’s title, clearly, other people needed them too…

My beau says that mine would be “It Takes a Lot” with a picture of an empty toilet paper roll on the front cover, which… look—I know I’m a handful. 🙄

In response, his is obviously “It Takes a While” (he does not love this). 1. Because matching is cute. 2. Let’s just say he is… deliberate. 🤣

Anywhoozy…

After class this afternoon, a student and I were chatting about the power of why. The mighty why. Set off by him telling me how much he appreciated that I so often tell my students not just what to do, but why to do it.

Shucks. 

I mean… this isn’t an Ashleytocracy, folks. I’ll tell you why I think something works, but this is yoga—the art & science of self-knowledge. You try it out and see if it works for you.

Anyway, as we were wrapping up this convo, he said, “I think the name of your book should be Action Through Understanding.”

Color me moved, folks. That’s way better than It Takes a Lot and honestly just as accurate, IMHO.

Because look… yoga is my life. I teach yoga, I practice yoga… I spend hours pondering how YOU can get to know yourself better—and how, in doing so, we can have a world full of more self-aware, kinder people (you’d sign up for that, right?).

And that is why I have now spent the last three hours mulling over this idea of the WHY—and why it is so important to me.

Because yeah—I AM super passionate about the why.

Always have been… I was a real WHY kid. I mean, aren’t all kids though? 

I like to know why.

Don’t just tell me what to do. Tell me why I might want to do something—and I’ll decide if it’s the right thing for me.

(It takes a lot… you’re seeing it now, aren’t you?)

I also love riding the Why Train with my little nephews. I have an as-of-yet inexhaustible reservoir for trying to come up with answers to the why question, and I’m just so excited to see them gobbling up information (and toast—so much toast).

When we ask why, it means we are curious.

And curiosity, my friends—now that is a powerful tool.

Curiosity takes us to greater understanding.
Greater understanding takes us to more skilled action.
Which often brings us right back to curiosity.

I think, cats aside, curiosity is the driver of action. And compassionate action… is the key to a better world.

And so when you guys ask me why, I am so thrilled. When we want to know why, that shows we’re hooked.

I really hope that yoga gets its hooks in you—and reels you in.

The deeper we go, the more questions there are:

Why does this work?
How can I feel better?
What can I do?
Where can I learn more?
When should I practice?

…Who am I?

Yoga is not just about learning a pose or getting “it” right.

It’s about getting curious.

Not just doing something because someone told you to… but actually tuning in and figuring out what’s true for you—why you are here, and who you are.