Some say cupcakes are just muffins that believe in miracles. Today we explore that age-old question -what is the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? We eat them and seem to believe intuitively and clearly that there is a difference but what is this difference really?
The answer is subtle. Muffins are more “bread like” while cupcakes are more, well, “cake like”. Muffins seem to us to be healthier to eat, not filled with sugar, but rather filled with ingredients good for us like- oats, bran, or fruit.
Cupcakes are loaded with extra sugar, and topped with frostings. They usually come at an end of a mealtime as a desert – adding a flourish to the ending of the meal. They seem sweet on the way down but somehow leave you with a sense of absence after the initial sugar high wears off.
To a baker, muffins are made more like how a loaf of bread would be made, while cupcakes usually are made closer to how you would make a cake.
What is your approach to your yoga practice? When you go through your asana practice, are you more like a cupcake or a muffin? Are you digging down deep inside, making sure all the parts of the pose are integrated together, experiencing the pose from the bottoms of your feet, to the top of your body and letting the poses kneed into your inner being and the core of who you are? Or are you just looking for the quick fix, the sugar high, and the “I did some yoga today” check box before setting off on another activity?
What’s the difference between expressing a yoga pose completely and just going through the motions? It’s similar to eating the healthier muffin or the more sugary cupcake.
The poses may look similar on the outside but on the inside the core ingredients are different. Your approach to the pose is different, your body feels subtly different and when you practice your energy is different.
Ask yourself, are you approaching youryoga practice with a lot of sugar and sweetness or are you doing a healthier more fulfilling version? For each pose, are you expressing yourself to your fullest potential or are you just doing it not believing it is important how you express yourself and just moving on to the next pose. Start doing your yoga practice, as a muffin would, full of good ingredients but also with just a bit of sweetness and filling as well.
Feel all the complexities in the flavor of the pose. Believe in yourself, knowing you have done the pose to the best of your ability. Become the muffin.
Take a leap 