maybe dolly parton had a little yogi in her
A thought to unfold…
Find out who you are and do it on purpose.
These wise words come from our beloved friend, Dolly Parton.
Dolly was a songwriter. A storyteller. A lover of sequins and rhinestones. Big hair. Butterflies. Reading. Humanity.
She was spunky. She was witty. She was fabulous. She was kind. She was free.
Dolly was one of one. And she spent a lifetime reminding us that we are, too.
Inspiration is everywhere…
I've been thinking a lot about Dolly and all the things people have shared about her in the days after her passing. The quotes. The interviews. The stories.
But one thing kept coming up over and over again, and it’s this: Dolly Parton was one of the few things we could all agree on. It didn't matter who you were or where you came from or what you believed. Somehow, we all believed in Dolly.
And, really, that’s because Dolly was so truly, unapologetically, beautifully, unmistakably…Dolly. The hair. The rhinestones. The nails. The laugh. The music. The humor. The enormous heart. She never made herself smaller or quieter or less sparkly to be taken seriously. She knew who she was and wasn’t afraid to share it with us. She was cute and hilarious. Sexy and smart. Successful and giving. Kind and snarky. She knew how to give a compliment from the heart just as graciously as she could take one. She crossed party lines and belief systems and musical genres and decades and classes. She. Was. Everything.
She was her.
Dolly showed us all that you could be fabulous and flamboyant and fun—and still be deeply grounded. Kind. Generous. Loving. Human.
And the other day, while in my Dolly doomscroll (read: joy-scroll), I came across a conversation between Dolly and Reese Witherspoon. Reese was preparing for her role as June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash movie, Walk the Line, and met with Dolly to learn more about June as she took on the role. At one point, Reese told Dolly how much she'd always admired Dolly, and how she'd always wanted to be more like her.
Dolly responded right back, without hesitation, in her high-pitch warm and gentle Dolly voice—you know, the one with the subtle friendly chuckle behind it in a way only she could—and said, “well, don't be more like me. Be more like you.”
It got me thinking more and more about how maybe Dolly really was a yogi. And whether or not she’s ever seen the four corners of a mat (but fun fact, this post from her teacher tells me she has!), we all know being a yogi isn’t just about the physical practice.
The practice of yoga is a return to self. That’s all it asks of us. Not, how can I become more like them? But, how can I become more fully me? Dolly knew this better than anyone. She was the QUEEN of this.
Yoga, at its heart, is a practice of coming home to ourselves. Beneath all the roles we play. The expectations. The comparisons. The stories about who we should be.
In yoga philosophy, there is this concept of dharma. Our guiding principle, our life’s work. It’s our path, our purpose, the particular way we are meant to move through this life. It’s the unique gift that, at our core, is with us in all that we do.
So yeah, more than a cutesy insta graphic quote, Dolly knew what the fuck was up when she said, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” And then she went on to say the part people sometimes leave off, “do it with purpose.” Because knowing who you are is one thing, but living like you know you is another. Find your dharma. Follow what’s yours. Bring it into the world. On purpose. With purpose.
Guys, the queen of country was a modern day, sequin-wearing, big-hair, big-boob, strums-a-guitar-while-wearing-acrylics, smoky-mountain yogi. The one and only Miss Dolly Parton, y’all.
She taught us everything we need to know about being human and how to live. So if you’re in your feels about the backwoods barbie’s passing, let’s make her proud.
First, get to know yourself. And then live like you.
Choose like you know you.
Speak like you know you.
Create like you know you.
Take up space like you know you
Not anyone else’s version of you. Just you. On purpose. Fully. Completely. Shining. Just like Dolly’s rhinestones.
No one else can do you like you can.
Thoughts for practice…
So how do we find our dharma? There’s no one magic formula, that’s for sure, but there are clues waiting for you to find them. Look for them in what lights you up. What comes naturally. What keeps showing up again and again. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. You start noticing it everywhere. And the more you pay attention, the more if keeps revealing itself.
Journal Prompts
I’m including quite a few prompts for this one, because finding and living our purpose is something that’s really important to me. It’s an ongoing journey, our life’s work. So whether you’re already living your dharma, or it’s the very first time you hear that word, here are a few places to start looking.
Pick a few that speak to you—or move through them all.
When do you feel most alive? What are you doing? Who are you with? What part of you gets to come forward in those moments?
When do you feel most like yourself? I’m not talking the most impressive, productive, or successful, I’m talking about the most you.
What have you loved for as long as you can remember? Before you worried about whether you were good at it, could make money from it, or whether anyone else understood.
What comes naturally to you that you sometimes forget is a gift because it comes so naturally?
What’s one of the best things someone has ever told you about yourself? Something that lit something up inside you because some part of you knew: yes. That’s me.
What do people consistently come to you for? Advice? Laughter? Calm? Ideas? Honesty? Connection? A listening ear? Getting shit done?
What breaks your heart—or lights a fire in you—enough that you want to do something about it?
Think about the different versions of you: work you, family you, friend you, stranger-holding-the-door-open you. What qualities keep showing up in every version of you? What is always there?
If you look back across your life, what are the threads that keep finding you? Interests, values, experiences, people, causes, ways of being. Even if they feel unrelated, maybe over time, you start to notice it all making sense.
If no one else’s expectations mattered, what would you want to give more of yourself to?
What do you bring to the world that no one else can bring quite like you?
If you already knew who you were—and trusted her completely—what would you do on purpose?
Reflections for Your Practice
Dolly once said that you can't really know who you are if you never spend time with yourself. She did a lot in her lifetime, but she also knew it wasn’t all about doing or performing. It was being able to be with yourself long enough to listen.
And when it came to taking care of herself physically, Dolly was all about doing it her own way (no shocker there, right?). She kinda hated on traditional movement and exercise, and instead did what she called “rejoicing exercises.” This was her own way of moving in a way that felt right and meaningful to her.
“If you tell me I’ve got to do an exercise routine…I dread it so bad,” she told Allure in 2021. Her workaround was “rejoicing exercises”: a freewheeling combination of gospel music, singing, stretching, shouting, and praising. “I do more ‘rejoicing’ than I do ‘working out,’” she said. She occasionally added a few floor exercises and squats—especially, as she put it, “diddly-squats.”
No matter what it was that she was doing in life, Dolly practiced in a way that was true to her, and we all should, too.
The next time you step onto your mat:
Let your practice feel like you. Your breath. Your body. Your expression. What happens when you stop worrying about what the shape is supposed to look like and instead listen to what feels right in your body? Maybe you even close your eyes and let feeling be your guide.
Find your joy. Maybe you want to move bigger. Add a little wiggle and a whole lot of weird. Do you. Smile. Laugh. Dance and sing when the song hits. Where could you let a little more joy into your movement?
Notice where you slip into performance. Where are you pushing because you actually want to versus pushing because you think you should? What changes when you stop trying to prove something and practice from a place of knowing yourself?
Make room for your own expression. There are a million ways to inhabit a shape. What does your version feel like today?
Get quiet enough to hear yourself. Like Dolly said, you need to be with yourself to know yourself. Make room for stillness. Meditation. A longer savasana. And remember, practice can live off the mat, too. A long walk can become a moving meditation. A few minutes of deep awareness of your breath can bring you back to yourself. You can find that space anywhere.
Get to know yourself. Practice like yourself. Live like yourself.
Take this with you…
Dolly was a lot of remarkable things. She spanned genres. Decades. Socioeconomics. Young and old.
More than anything, her life, the way she lived, showed us that if you find out who you are, and do it on purpose, with purpose, you can do life unlike anyone else has before.
RIP sweet Dolly Parton 1.19.1946 — 8.25.2026
You’ve taught and given us so much. We’ll carry on your sparkle by living ours ✨
—this reflection comes from class taught 8.27.2026—
ps. every volume has its own vibe—and trust me, this one’s a vibe—press play and let it unfold.