Practice Notes - 3/9/26

March 9, 2026 - Making Sense of the Dharma

Last week, we welcomed some lovely new students into the fold. We explored the fundamentals of breathing, of posture, and of alignment, weaving together a class the culminated in a supported but powerful lengthening pose (warrior III or virabhadrasana III at the wall). It was a lovely practice, with playfulness and attentiveness that was wonderful to witness.

Atypically, I didn’t really present a theme, although there were certainly elements of the contemplative work we’ve been learning up to this point. The last few sessions, we’d be focusing on the dharma - the idea that we are living in a Life-creating and Life-sustaining, ordered universe. I confess, however, since the beginning of the war in Iran, I’ve found it difficult to connect to the idea of dharma because this conflict stands as such a strong example of an non-dharmic world - disordered, painful, and life-denying.

I won’t share too much more about this, nor will I shared the class sequence. I’ll simply say that I’m trying to understand where pain, thoughtlessness, and fear of this magnitude fit into the model of a dharmic world. It’s moments like these, perhaps, where I recognize the limits of my cognition in trying to parse out the “whys” and “what ifs” of such a conflict. So if you’re like me, and want to spend some time with affirming and lively people, come to yoga. It may be, if only for an evening, a moment to feel rather than think, to listen to what your body and being may wish to share with you, and to feel the gentle, nurturing company of others.

Saprema <3

Practice Notes - 3/2/2026

March 2, 2026 - Dharma: Aliveness in the Body

This week we continued our discussion of the Dharma, again through the lens of yoga. During the previous class we spoke about the Dharma as the an expression of “aliveness” both in the sense of Life itself and the things/forces/processes that affirm and add to the project of Life. To that end, we had a high-sensation asana practice to tune into what aliveness feels like our tissues. This week, we got a little more subtle by emphasizing the breath. We practiced sama vritti pranayama (lit. “equal turning breath practice”) and viloma pranayama (lit. “against the hair/grain breath practice” within the context of a slow asana practice.

We began with a seated breathing practice - sama vritti. Using a refined breath (breathing as if we had a small, downy feather under our nose and trying not to ruffle it), we practiced inhaling and exhaling for an equal count. We came up against the edge of moderate “air hunger,” the feeling of needing to take a breath. This extends our lung capacity and also helps to balance the ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the bloodstream.

Continuing our sama vritti breath we:

• Went into a slow warm up using: table top spinal movements (cat and cow), dynamic cat/cow/child’s (balasana), finger tip cobras, seated twists, and side bends. We then moved into larger movements, including: downward dog, forward folds, and squatting half forward folds.

• Continued with a slow series of low and high lunges. Within these poses, we used arm movements to create a deeper sensation of breathing, marrying movement to the rhythm of respiration.

• We closed our asana practice with an old favorite: gate pose (parighasana). Combined with emphasized breathing, we found a great deal of opening and sensation between the ribs as well as the bottom rib and hip crest.

From there, we went into a second seated breathing practice: viloma. This breath is a classic lung building practice meant to increase lung capacity and prepare students for more advanced breathing techniques. This practice involves:

• Inhaling and directing the first part of the breath into the belly, paying attention to the movement of the diaphragm.

• Inhaling and directing the second phase of breathing into the rib cage, attending to the inflation of the lungs against the ribs.

• The third phase is also an inhale, directed into the upper ribs and collarbones, again noting movement and a feeling of reaching the upper limit of the inhale.

• The final phase is putting it all together with pauses. We:

  • Inhale into the belly for four counts and pause.

  • Continue the inhale into the ribs for four counts and pause.

  • Finish the inhale into the collarbones/upper ribs and pause. This takes us to the edge of lung “overfill”

  • Exhale in a controlled manner until the lungs feel empty and air hunger makes itself known.

  • Begin the cycle again, resisting the urge to gulp air on the inhale.

People reported that this felt both challenging and refreshing.

Then, you guessed it, savasana and a closing.

Thanks, y’all! See you soon. Saprema <3

Practice Notes - 2/23/26

FEBRUARY 23, 2026 - Identifying the Dharma

Following our conversations about energy, the nature of relationship in yoga and how we influence those relationships, the question arises: what do we want from all of this? And how do we know that what we want is responsible? So we had to open up a big topic, possible the biggest: dharma.

Dharma is usually translated as “law, justice, morality, order, harmony, etc.” The idea is that the world we live in has an implicit, underlying order to it, an order that we should all try to follow in order for harmony to persist. For me, that’s always seemed a bit abstract. What does this look like? Feel like? The best introduction I’ve come up with is simply this: dharma is Life affirming. If we think of dharma in an ecological sense, a great web of Life that is interconnected and somehow conscious, a network that knows how to constantly balance and re-balance the scales in order to for Life (I’m capitalizing here to differentiate between “life” as the state of living versus “Life” as the state of all existence - living, dying, bliss, suffering, and all in between.) So how do we begin to act responsibly and contribute to the dharma? We learn to tune into the experience of aliveness itself! To feel the vital energy of breath and the soaring sensation of our skeleton and muscles pulsing with life.

To that end, we had a very lively, energy-rich practice as a way to taste the nature of Life, of the dharma, itself.

We began lying on our backs with a bolster under knees, breathing in ujayii and bringing our attention to three bony centers of mass in the body (aka “the wheels”): the skull, the ribcage, and the pelvis. After that, we…

• Practiced spinal extension and flexion by articulating the spine by moving through the three wheels. We did this in table top position and through standing.

• We warmed up with forward folds, cobras, and downward dog.

From there, we transitioned to a lunging series. We…

• Started with back knees down, finding the three wheels to engage and lengthen the front of the hip, and from there hinged at the hip.

• Crescent lunge/warrior 1 stance with an open twist

After this, we practiced down dog at the wall to find energy and length through the limbs, as well as opening through the backs of the legs. Next, we went through a final lunging series:

• Warrior 1 to pyramid stance to lengthen the hamstrings and calves, supporting lengthening and flexing of the spine with blocks.

Then we got to the wall/partner work. Woo!

• The first partner began by assuming a lunge stance at the wall. The other partner crouched down and provided resistance into their partner’s heel, pulling slightly up while the heel went down and out. The lunging partner then had the opportunity to slide their hands up the wall, lengthening through the hip and front body. Then we swapped.

• The second pose was warrior III (virabhadrasana III). The first partner took down dog at the wall. Keeping their standing leg and hip stable, they picked their other foot up and raised it behind them, pressing into their partner’s belly or thigh. People reported the experience of full body lengthening, energy pinging throughout the body, and breath coming alive.

To close, we cooled with a supine twist and savasana.

Thanks, y’all. Hope to see you next week :)

Saprema

Practice Notes - 2/16/2026

FEBRUARY 16, 2026 - Leading a Charmed Life

In this week’s class, we synthesized the contemplative aspects of our practice over the last four weeks. We’d talked about energy as creative force, our ability to cultivate our inner creativity, receive the creativity of the world around us, and then engage in a relationship - which is always some kind of gamble - of mutual nourishment. But even though relationships of this nature are a dice throw, it’s not like we’re not allowed to try to finagle the best possible outcome. So how do we do this?

A myth from the Hindu tradition might have some insight. Shakti, the supreme Goddess, and Shiva, the supreme God - were engaged in their favorite pastime: gambling with dice. It was Shiva’s final throw and as the Supreme Yogin with his razor-sharp concentration, he was likely to win. But just as he cast the dice, Shakti gave him a “look",” a look that contained all her beauty, sexuality, and bliss. Shiva was dazzled, thrown off his game. He blew it, distracted by her lasya, her charm. She won the game.

Shakti used her gifts, the things that truly make her her, and used them to influence the outcome of this mutually agreed upon game between her and her husband. She didn’t want to lose and she found a way to win. This isn’t necessarily a metaphor for power and dominance. Rather, it tells us that we’re free to have desires and to pursue them, and we can use our charms to do so. How we do so in a responsible way, well that’s for next week. For the rest of our class, we did this:

Thank you to

• Centering with ujjayi breath lying on our sides over a bolster to better sense the side ribs and mobilize the spaces between them.

• Warm-ups including: cat and cow, downward dog (focusing on hand seal - hasta bandha), cobra in three progressions (fingertips long, fingertips closer in, palms flat), forward fold.

• Low lunging series. First, an upright torso over vertical front shin and back thigh bone, connecting the spine and the pelvis through muscle engagement in the belly. Additionally, we reviewed foot seal, (pada bandha)We twisted upright, then twisted again with one hand on a block, twisting to the opposite side, rotating the spine to circle the arm.

• Side angle pose (parsvakonasana) from a wide-legged stance. We held this pose while rotating through the spine and circling the arm. From there, we went into a partner side angle pose facing our partner, joining our top arm palms and pushing into each other to engage side body.

• Afterwards, we explored forward fold (uttanasana) in depth: foot seal, healthy ways to roll through the spine, and ways to stretch the backs our legs keeping the strain out of low back. Then, we went into pyramid pose (parsvottanasana), taking a lunging stance with both knees extended (more or less) and then folding and rising over the legs with blocks or hand to thigh.

• Then came the final pose: twisted head to knee pose (parivrtta janu sirsasana). We did this with a strap and a partner. We extended one leg, looped a strap around it, and then placed our inside arm on the inside of the leg before grabbing the strap to pull up and rotate, stretching the top rib. Our partner applied gentle downward pressure to the opposite thigh/hip.

  Finally, we closed with partner breathing and savasana. Thank you to all who came, and see you all soon!
  Saprema, Joey

Practice Notes - 2/9/2026

FEBRUARY 9, 2026 - “Life is Play + A Game of Dice”

During our fourth class, we did a bit of weaving things together across all we’ve explored so far - movement, breathing, and contemplation. We started with investigating the idea that yoga can be a process motivated by a desire to improve the self, but it can also be motivated by creating powerful bonds of mutual nourishment and inspiration between ourselves, others, and the larger world. All of it is a creative process. What’s interesting, and sometimes feel more scary, about choosing a path of connection is that it’s not a process entirely under your control. Choosing to cross the distance between yourself and another being (a lover, a friend, a forest, a career) is inherently risky because you can never know how the other will respond, if it will be able to nourish you as you intend to nourish it. This risk is known as lila, or “play” in yogic philosophy. It’s a gamble, a throw of the dice, and like a good bet it sucks to lose but if you pull it off, you get a taste of bliss. As such, we’d brought all the work we’d done together in a playful class.

We began with:

• Ujjayi breathing preparation and practice in a seated position with a strap tied around the ribs to provide tactile feedback of the bones moving in response to the breath.

• Warm-up consisting of seated side bends, cat + cow, mini cobras, down dog, and forward folds

We used our warm-ups to explore the idea of hasta bandha and pada bandha, the hand and foot “seals.” This is a way of placing and activating the small muscles of the hands and feet for better support and access to the opposing force to gravity (ground reaction force), which helps us to move with more ease and economy.

We then moved into a standing lunge sequence, starting with:

• A kneeling lunge with arm circles forward and backward

• A single leg balance transitioning into a kneeling twisted lunge with arm and spinal rotations

From there, things got a little more playful at the wall.

• We took a kneeling lunge away from the wall with a blanket under our knees. We scooted back until our knee was at the corner of the wall and the floor and our shin was up the wall. From there, integrating our pelvis and spine with abdominal engagement, we started to raise ourselves up to vertical for a big ol’ thigh stretch. It was felt.

• We did the balancing, twisted lunge at the wall, using both arms to push ourselves a little off balance.

Our final exploration was a partner bridge (setu bandhasana/setu bandha sarvangasana).

• We did this in groups of three and four. The first person laid on the ground and lifted their hips up into an easy bridge pose.

• The second person knelt at their feet with their knees on their partner’s outer feet. Taking hold of the back of the partner’s upper calves/knees, they gently leaned back to lengthen out the hips and low back.

• After placing a strap underneath the bridger’s upper back and pulling it up through their armpits, the third person knelt behind the bridger’s head gently leaned back to traction the upper back away from the knees.

• The fourth person place their palm, finger facing up the spine, on the bridger’s sacrum (the bony triangle at the base of the spine). They gave a tiny press upwards and then “scooped,” lightly dragged the sacrum downwards and slightly upwards to lengthen the lower spine.

The consensus was this felt amazing. Afterwards, we cooled down with partner ujjayi breathing and a long savasana. Thank you everyone for coming, and see you for the next round!

Saprema :)