According to Michelle Cassandra Johnson, this is also the way to make social change—through feeling, not through thinking: If we are going to make social change, we need to cultivate a practice of feeling. If someone could think us out of the social injustice that we are swimming in, a very smart someone would have done so by now. When one connects

Remember, spiritual power without service is simply power. Service is an outlet for your energy. It allows the energy that you build in your practice to be used for the greater good—not just for your own personal benefit. This focus on others, and not simply expanding your own ego, is really at the basis of spiritual practice. So, it’s not a matter

In many ways, yoga is a practice of truthfulness, satya. The truth is we are spiritual beings having this temporary human experience. Truthful thoughts reflect the universal love that is the nature of our spiritual essence. Thoughts that reflect our loving nature are true, while thoughts that are based on attachments, or external, limited things,

Failure is the direct outcome of practice. Failure is what we get to do every time we get on the mat. We get to fail at this pose or that pose. We get to fail at relaxing when we lie in Shavasana and our nervous system is buzzing with caffeine, and we get to fail at meditating every time our mind wanders. I’ve never practiced yoga and not failed,

To live in the question is a very difficult thing to do, but that’s what yoga demands.

As we move into a time of post-lineage yoga, I think we should celebrate our independence from traditional gurus who were so often abusive. But we can keep in mind that there were benefits to the guru relationship that may be lost—the power of tradition and lineage, the focused attention, the individual support—but this should not keep us from

Intuitive practice values the messages that are constantly arising from the body and mind. We don’t need to push them away with meditation techniques that work like dog training: “Bad mind!” Instead, ask your mind, “What is bothering you? Let’s find the way through. How can we build this life together? Let me listen to you and work with you to

The next time you step on your mat, see what it feels like to start with the thought, “I know,” instead of the idea, “I don’t know.” Or the next time you sit in meditation, start with the thought, “I have truth within me, and my work is to remove the obstacles to that inner wisdom, and uncover that truth.” An intuitive yoga practice looks very

The point is, yoga is not just about stopping the mind, as Patanjali advocates, at least not unless our goal is renouncing the world. Instead, it’s about learning how to use the mind wisely, to cultivate discernment. This may seem like a minor point, but I think it has huge repercussions. We have created modern yoga systems around a philosophy of