In India, yoga is a very broad term that refers to any practice that helps cultivate a greater sense of self understanding. Most of the yoga practised in the West is based on sets of physical positions and breathing techniques that are collectively referred to as hatha yoga.

My teacher Diane Long studied for 23 years with the late Vanda Scaravelli, who was a student of three of India’s best known teachers; the yoga teachers BKS Iyengar and TKV Desikachar, and the philosopher J Krishnamurti. Scaravelli taught ways of bringing more awareness to what is happening inside us as we practice, which encourage the body to unravel into yoga positions from within rather than having to be pushed or pulled into them from without.

One of the difficulties of learning yoga is the temptation to go further into positions than our body is yet able to be comfortable in. However satisfying this might feel, it creates tension, disturbs our breathing and has an un-grounding effect on the body. Paradoxically, by pushing less, our body can find ways to work harder and deeper as it spontaneously releases and realigns itself, exposing those areas within us that are weakest and tightest, and breathing life back into them.

Working in this way also helps cultivate a more meditative awareness of ourselves. As we learn how to be where we are, rather than trying to get somewhere that we aren’t, we become more sensitive to our experience of each moment, which is in itself both restorative and transformative.