A new (old) take on the Yoga Sutra

Introducing my long-awaited book, a feminine-focused take on the universal wisdom contained within the Yoga Sutra

A photo from December 2018 showing my organization process while I was writing my manuscript on the Yoga Sutra.

If you were asked to define Yoga and you were only allowed to give a one-word answer, what would you say? (Let me know in the comments below what yoga means to you!)

Movement? Wellbeing? Meditation? Community? There are many answers to this question. Patanjali provides a broad overview in the first few aphorisms of his Yoga Sutra. The principles his definition of yoga evoke include:

• Presence

• Focus

• Process

• Potential

Yoga, according to Patanjali, is about figuring out how to stay present, how to focus your energy, and how to master the processes that will help you realize your full potential.

However, yoga is also a deeply personal practice that only works if you consistently apply it. What helps you feel present may be different than what works for me. What helps you focus may be different than what helps me. The processes that help you live up to your fullest potential might be radically different than the processes I need. And the manifestation of my fullest potential in this world is most certainly different than the manifestation of yours. These differences are what make yoga such a beautiful practice. It also makes yoga insanely hard (not to mention inefficient) to teach.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is brilliant because he offers guidance and frameworks without giving a whole lot of specifics. He offers permission to take the wisdom and apply it in your life in the way that works for you.

I’ve decided to finally share my understandings of Patanjali’s wisdom publicly to help you deepen your yoga practice, live with more presence, focus on what matters most, figure out the processes that help you live your best life, and life up to your fullest potential.

I first read the Yoga Sutra in my 200HR Yoga Teacher Training. While I intuitively recognized the deep wisdom of the philosophy, it didn’t hook me right away (and I honestly didn’t understand most of what I read). It took another five years, and many more attempts at studying the Sutra, for me to embrace the transformative power of the Yoga tradition, process, system, and practice. By integrating the wisdom of the Yoga Sutra into my personal practice, my teaching, and my daily life, I became a better yoga practitioner and teacher, and transformed my life in every imaginable way.

Integrating yoga philosophy into my life helps me wash away the karmic residue of my generational trauma. Committing to this path helps me set aside the conditioned responses I’ve adopted from our modern culture. Sticking to my practice has opened up my soul to a more compassionate, loving, empathetic way of living alongside the inevitable fear, resentment, revenge, anger, and anxiety that frequently arises.

Modern life causes us to pull ourselves apart. What we need now more than ever are tools to put ourselves back together—to re-integrate into our whole being. The wisdom hidden within the Yoga Sutra can help you do that.

As I mentioned in my personal fall update a few weeks ago, I wrote a manuscript about the Yoga Sutra in 2018 while I was pregnant with my eldest, but never published it. For almost a decade, I’ve implemented the wisdom from yoga philosophy daily, taught hundreds of classes, written thousands of words, and filmed hours of videos sharing my interpretations and understanding of the Yoga Sutra’s modern relevance to wellbeing. Yoga teachers from all over the world have thanked me for helping them better understand, but most importantly integrate, the teachings of the Yoga Sutra in ways that feel accessible and inspiring.

What makes my interpretations different than what you’ll read in academic translations, guru takes, or even recent mainstream books, is that I'm applying the wisdom from the perspective of a woman and a mother. Since writing my manuscript, I’ve also become much more interested in Tantra philosophy, which is often considered at odds with the ideals of Classical Yoga. I believe both philosophical frameworks have something to offer. Call me a picker-and-a-chooser, but my understanding of yoga is that it’s always been a “take what works and leave the rest” kind of system. Patanjali himself wrote the Yoga Sutra not as an original work but as a compiler of many wisdom lineages practiced throughout Southeast Asia in his time. I’m here to compile, integrate, make relevant, and explain complex concepts in accessible, relevant ways through the lens of woman, mother, householder, yoga practitioner, teacher, and writer without watering down the essence of the teachings.

Sharing my understanding here on Yoga for Women’s Wellbeing is my contribution toward bringing this wisdom back to its ultimate source—that of the Divine Mother, which underlies almost all ancient, indigenous belief systems before the patriarchy stepped in and cast us all out as witches. Women know. We understand deeply in our heart, bones, and blood what feels right. Our culture has made us mistrust our own knowing, imploring us to give deference to “expert” (male) opinions, cloaked as knowledge. No more. It’s time to reconnect to what we’ve always known deep down to be true. It’s time to reclaim our natural power, and wield it for good in this world. It’s time to re-integrate the universal wisdom buried in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra.

I (finally) present to you my interpretation of the Yoga Sutra. At least once a month, but sometime more, I plan to publish little philosophy teachings from my manuscript, complete with real-world examples for how to apply it. This is yoga in action.

May this wisdom help you reconnect with your own truth, your natural state of wellbeing, and the power to change your world for the better.

We’ll start next week with some wisdom on presence.

Thanks to all of you who have been waiting so patiently for this. Thanks to those of you who are new here and feel like it’s a small corner of the internet worth sticking around for.

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