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We regularly share insights that support yoga teachers, including how to refine your cues for poses, how to sequence poses, and how to share versions of poses that support all students’ bodies. We know that’s what you need as you prepare to teach. But what is equally essential, if not more so, is an understanding of the principles that underlie the physical practice. It’s this integrity that informs how you teach and supports your students more than anything else you could do or say. The following excerpt from The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga , written by Accessible Yoga founder Jivana Heyman, reminds us of that. —YJ Editors
While all yoga teachers need to know how to adapt the practice so that anybody can join their classes, that’s really just the beginning. The ultimate goal is to celebrate our students’ differences. This means actually celebrating the things that they may be ashamed of and hide from the world. Can you imagine what it would be like to have your yoga teacher celebrate your differences? It would bring validation, a sense of being seen, and a feeling of belonging. It would lay the groundwork for transformational acts of self‑acceptance and self-love.
The most fundamental teaching of yoga is that we are all inherently whole—full—and complete spiritual beings. Yoga begins with this positive assertion. You are already full. This assumption of our completeness is described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. He first defines yoga as the effort to calm the mind. Then he explains in sutra 1.3 that once the mind is calm, “The Self abides in its own true nature.” In other words, when the mind is peaceful, we automatically experience the truth of our spiritual essence. When the storm passes, we see that we’re still standing.
In 1.4, he continues to explain that when we’re not abiding in our true nature, we’re trapped in our thoughts. He says, “At other times, the Self assumes the form of the thoughts.” What he’s describing is our fundamental human condition: We’ve forgotten the truth of our spiritual essence and, instead, identified with the thoughts in the mind. We’ve gotten lost and become disconnected from that place within our own heart. We’ve identified with our fleeting thoughts rather than with our immortal spirit.
The yoga practices are all designed to lead us back home to ourselves. They’re not about giving us something new, or making us into something else. They’re not about healing us, fixing us, or fitting us into a mold. But rather, peeling away the layers, like stripping away the layers of paint from wood furniture.
I have a background in art, and this idea of removing what’s in the way, always reminds me of making a sculpture. There are two different traditional approaches to sculpture. In additive sculpture you build a sculpture from nothing. You use a medium like clay, and you build it up. You keep adding to it until it creates the image you have in your mind.
Another technique, called subtractive sculpture, is about carving and taking away. Usually the medium is stone or wood, and you actually take away that which is blocking the truth of the form. Great examples of this are Michelangelo’s famous non‑finito (unfinished) sculptures. These are giant male figures that seem to be coming out of the stone. It looks like they’re emerging from the solid rock and transforming into something organic and alive.
In a famous quote, Michelangelo explained, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” That’s the image that comes to mind when I think about accessible yoga. As teachers, we are supporting people as they reconnect with themselves—as they free themselves from the grasp of a culture that is always telling them they are not enough. We help them to discover and embrace their own fullness, and we show them that they can set themselves free.
Accessible yoga is an approach to teaching based on the ideals of inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility, rather than a specific style of yoga. It is defined by these concepts:
- Everyone has a right to the teachings and practices of yoga
- Each individual is a unique and equal expression of our universal connectedness
- Service and compassion are yoga in action
- Teaching yoga is a collaborative and creative process
- Personal growth and transformation require a supportive community
Excerpted with permission from The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga by Jivana Heyman (Rainbow Mind Publications).
