#satya

[dulceskull]

Happy Tuesday from Satya!

T girl tuesday tummy tuesday treasure trail tuesday additional spicy versions up on bluesky/patreon!

[bigmsaxon]

Holdin' on to what's golden

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[1unaaaaa]

[whatonyogaearth]

Roots Torn, Truth Forgotten Remembering the Soul of Yoga

A meditation on values, roots, and remembering.

Yoga was never meant to be easy. Not a trend. Not a sale. Not a neatly packaged hour squeezed between meetings.

Yoga has always been a path of return - to essence, to Earth, to the quiet flame of inner knowing.

But as the world shifted, so too did the ways we practise and share it. This is a gentle inquiry - not a judgement - into how our modern systems shape our sacred spaces. And how we, as a community, might remember what lies beneath it all.

🧘🏻‍♀️From Practice to Product?

Yoga once unfolded slowly. In quiet halls, with simple mats. We gathered not for the burn, but for the stillness. Not for aesthetic, but for awareness.

Classes moved like seasons - 90 minutes long, with time to arrive, breathe, reflect. Teachings included not just poses, but pranayama, myth, philosophy, mantra, and silence.

Now, yoga comes in countless forms: Rocket, Broga, Acro, Power, Beer. 10-minute hits for the algorithm. Retreats that feel more like resorts.

The pace quickens. The scroll deepens. And something ancient risks being forgotten - not gone, but buried beneath the noise.

🎓Training for Depth or Branding?

There was a time when to teach yoga was a sacred vow. Years of practice, mentorship, and spiritual discipline were the threshold.

Now, fast-track trainings offer certifications in weeks. Logos, hashtags, and packages precede lineage or embodied understanding.

Of course, accessibility matters. And yoga should be for everyone. But when depth is traded for speed, and presence for performance - what is being taught? What, truly, are we passing on?

💸The Marketplace of Mindfulness

We live in a world of sales and scarcity. Yoga is not immune.

Studios and teachers offer referral bonuses, flash sales, unlimited bundles. Prices undercut one another in a silent scramble for survival. Even sacred days are co-opted: Black Friday Yoga. Cyber Monday Memberships.

The problem isn’t generosity - it's the why.

Are we inviting access, or playing into a system that values profit over presence? Have we mistaken popularity for purpose?

And still - students click, book, attend. We all participate in the dance of commodification, even as we long to break free.

🌲Rooting in the Yamas

What if we recalibrated? What if our businesses were shaped not by trends, but by Patanjali’s Yamas - the ethical roots of the yogic path?

Ahimsa - non-harming

Satya - truthfulness

Asteya - non-stealing

Aparigraha - non-hoarding

Could our pricing reflect non-violence - to ourselves, our students, our peers? Could we market with truth, not illusion? Set prices that honour experience, rather than steal value through competition? Release the grip of scarcity, and trust in enoughness?

This is not naïveté - it’s radical. It is yoga.

🍄‍🟫The Mycelium Model

Imagine a yoga economy rooted like a forest.

Each studio a tree. Each teacher a root. Each student a leaf turned toward light. Beneath it all, a mycelial network of shared intention - unseen but essential.

This is not about perfection. It is about practice.

A business rooted in yamas doesn’t reject the world - it nourishes a new one. It swims upstream, slowly, bravely. It becomes a quiet revolution in how we live, share, and sustain.

Tiny shifts. Honest pricing. Mutual care. These small, invisible gestures ripple - butterfly effects in a complex system desperate for meaning.

🔥Reclaiming the Fire

Yoga is not passive. It is not aesthetic. It is practice - fire, courage, commitment, sacrifice.

To walk the yogic path as a teacher, student, or space-holder is to hold a light up against the currents of consumerism.

To choose slowness in a fast world. To remember depth when we are told to perform. To nourish the whole forest, not just our own canopy.

Yoga begins where we live. How we price. How we speak. How we honour each other’s time, labour, lineage.

🕸️Conclusion: Remembering the Invisible

Let our yoga businesses be like woodland roots - interwoven, rich, unseen, alive.

Let us be musk deer - no longer searching for the scent, but remembering it lives within.

Let us walk slowly. Speak honestly. And rebuild this sacred web together - not as brands, but as beings.

✨Let’s Keep the Conversation Going

What does true yoga mean to you in today’s world? How do you balance making a living with practicing and teaching authentically? How do you navigate yoga and capitalism in your practice or business? What does ethical, rooted yoga look like in today’s world?

📩 Message us to continue the conversation ❤️ Reblog to share these thoughts 🪷 Tag someone walking the path with heart

www.yoganaturesheffield.org.uk [email protected] www.instagram.com/yoganaturesheffield/

[clarathewriter]

The Yoga the West Forgot

There was an evening in Rishikesh when Guru Devendra asked me a question that completely changed my practice.

We were sitting by the Ganges after class. Most students had gone for chai, but I stayed, watching the river catch the last light.

He settled beside me on the stone steps.

"Tell me about yoga in Spain," he said.

I described the studios in Barcelona. The flow classes. The handstands. The beautiful spaces with their Buddha statues and Sanskrit quotes on the walls.

He listened carefully. Then, so gently: "That is one limb. What of the other seven?"

I stared at him.

Other seven?

I'd been practicing yoga for five years, I'd been practicing one-eighth of yoga for five years.

The Eight Limbs Most Studios Never Teach

Guru Devendra introduced me to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras - an ancient text that maps the complete path of yoga.

Not yoga as exercise. Yoga as a system for living.

The text describes eight limbs. Asana (the physical postures) is just the third.

Here's what I'd been missing:

1. Yama - Ethical restraints

(Ahimsa - non-harming, Satya - truthfulness, Asteya - non-stealing, Brahmacharya - wise energy use, Aparigraha - non-possessiveness)

2. Niyama - Personal observances

(Saucha - purity, Santosha - contentment, Tapas - disciplined effort, Svadhyaya - self-study, Ishvara pranidhana - surrender)

3. Asana - Physical postures

This is what most Western classes focus on

4. Pranayama - Breath control

5. Pratyahara - Withdrawal of senses

6. Dharana - Concentration

7. Dhyana - Meditation

8. Samadhi - Absorption/union

Sitting on those stone steps, I realized I'd been building a house starting with the roof.

How the West Changed Yoga

Yoga came to the West in the early 20th century. But something happened in translation.

Western culture was obsessed with fitness. Yoga's physical aspects were concrete, teachable, marketable.

The ethical foundations? Harder to sell.

In Barcelona, my studios offered "Power Yoga" and "Flow." Sixty-minute classes, mostly asana. Brief meditation. Philosophy mentioned in passing, if at all.

Nobody talked about ahimsa - about how practicing non-harm toward your body means actually listening to it.

Nobody discussed satya - being truthful about what your body can do versus what you're forcing it to do.

I'm not saying Western yoga is wrong. It brought yoga to millions. The physical practice opened the door for me too.

But something got lost.

"We kept the Instagram. We lost the inquiry."

Four Weeks in Rishikesh

The ashram schedule began before dawn.

But asana practice didn't start until we'd spent an hour discussing philosophy.

Week 1: The Yamas

Ahimsa - non-harming - came first.

Not just toward others. Toward ourselves.

Every forceful adjustment I'd received in Western classes violated this. Every time I pushed past pain thinking "no pain, no gain," I practiced harm, not yoga.

Guru Devendra said: "Ahimsa means asking - am I honoring my body, or trying to conquer it?"

I thought about every class where I'd competed with the person on the next mat.

Satya - truthfulness - meant being honest about my actual capacity. Not the pose I wished I could do. The one my body could sustain.

Week 2: The Niyamas

Santosha - contentment - was harder than any arm balance.

Could I be content with my practice exactly as it was?

Could I find discipline as something sacred (more on this - read about my morning practice)?

Svadhyaya - self-study - wasn't just reading philosophy. It was honest examination of my patterns.

Why did I practice? What was I trying to prove?

Week 3: Everything Shifted

When we finally emphasized asana, the poses were the same.

But I moved differently.

Each movement became a question: Am I honoring ahimsa? Am I practicing satya? Can I find santosha in this breath?

"The poses were the same. Everything was different."

My friend Ananya explained: "For us, asana prepares the body for meditation. For the West, meditation is the cool-down after workout."

She wasn't being critical. Just observant.

Both paths can lead somewhere. But they start from different places.

Back in Gothenburg

I worried the learning would fade when I got back to Sweden.

Some days, it does.

But most mornings now, before I step on my mat, I pause.

I check in:

Ahimsa - Am I being kind to my body today?

Satya - What is truthfully accessible right now?

Santosha - Can I be content with where I am?

My running along the Göta River became pranayama practice. My journal is svadhyaya.

When I catch myself comparing my practice to others on Instagram, I recognize it - aparigraha, the grasping.

The eight limbs weave through everything.

Sara, my Swedish teacher, asked what I learned in India.

"That I'd been missing seven-eighths."

"And now?"

"Now I'm practicing all eight. Badly, but wholly."

I'm not suddenly enlightened. I still get competitive. I still judge my worth by my flexibility some days.

But now I notice. I recognize when ego enters, and I can choose differently.

The Invitation

Your asana practice is valid.

The physical gateway is real. For many of us, it's the only way we would have found yoga.

But there's more available.

The ethical foundations don't make practice harder. They make it deeper.

Ahimsa transforms how you approach every pose.

Satya changes what "progress" means.

Santosha lets you stop chasing and start inhabiting.

The eight limbs aren't ancient rules to follow rigidly.

They're an invitation to fuller practice.

Yoga can be exercise. That's powerful.

Or yoga can be transformation.

"The body is the doorway, not the destination."

I still practice the same sequences from Barcelona. Downward dog. Warrior. Triangle.

But now each pose asks questions:

Am I practicing harm or healing?

Achievement or awareness?

Grasping or contentment?

Same poses. Different yoga.

What's your experience with yoga beyond the physical practice? Have you explored the yamas and niyamas?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[leonardcohenofficial]