#partner-yoga

#partner-yoga

"I truly believe travel in your 50s shifts in a meaningful way. It's often a decade of clarity-people are more intentional about how they spend their time, more focused on depth over volume, and increasingly interested in experiences that feel purposeful."

A true wellness gathering is something far more ancient and far more urgent: it's any intentional space where humans are invited to arrive whole, body, mind, spirit, and leave more alive than when they walked in. That's it. That's the whole definition.

Though there are as many asanas as there are species of living creatures in the universe, the old hatha yoga manuals report there are just 32 that are beneficial for humans, and Chair Pose is included among them. Chair is essentially a half-squat, or a half-stand: The feet are flat on the floor, the shins are angled forward about 45 degrees over the feet, the thighs are almost parallel to the floor, and the torso stretches up and back with the arms reaching upward.

If the goal to to offer a truly transformative practice-and a class students want to return to again and again-a welcoming environment for all should be the goal. But what, exactly, does that include? In short, the vulnerability that comes with yoga requires a container that supports it. Paying attention to the accessibility, vibe, and clarity in and around any class is a strong place to start.

"To become fully mature as human persons, we must bring to life within ourselves the dynamics that fashioned the cosmos. We must become these cosmic dynamics and primordial powers in a new human form. That is our task: to create the human form of the central powers of the cosmos.... The powers that build the universe are ultimately mysterious, issuing forth from and operating out of mystery. They are the most awesome and numinous reality in the universe. Humans are these dynamics brought into self-awareness.'

Every Sunday morning for the last seven years, I have walked into a noisy room filled with students to teach a heated vinyasa class. Noisy as in locker room, celebratory night out, restaurant level noisy. It's a far cry from the quiet shalas I spent years practicing in, spaces where so much as a whisper was frowned upon. I am a rule follower by nature. I respect a "shhh quiet" policy that some studios and teachers enforce.

"I can't do yoga because I'm not flexible." These might be the most damaging words in the wellness world. And yet, so many people say them-and believe them. But here's the truth: a gentle yoga for beginners practice has absolutely nothing to do with flexibility. In fact, when you approach yoga from the perspective of breath and muscle activation-as we do in the AYAMA™ method-you begin to understand that real yoga isn't about stretching at all.