#222 When God Speaks Through Interruptions and Redirections
Sutra 2.46, 2.47, 2.48
There are only three yoga sutras in all of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that speak directly about the practice of asana.
Just three.
For a text that has become the philosophical foundation of modern yoga, I find that so interesting. We spend so much time talking about poses, refining alignment, and learning increasingly complex postures, yet Patanjali dedicates only three sutras to the physical practice itself. The rest is devoted to the mind, our suffering, our relationship with the world, and ultimately, our relationship with the divine.
The first is Yoga Sutra 2.46: Sthira sukham asanam. A posture should have both steadiness and ease.
The second is Yoga Sutra 2.47: Prayatna-saithilya-ananta-samapattibhyam. The posture is practiced with relaxation of unnecessary effort and surrender into the infinite.
And finally, Yoga Sutra 2.48: Tato dvandva-anabhighatah. Then all dualities cease.
Like everything in Patanjali’s Sutras, it’s not just about how to practice the postures: it’s how to practice our lives.
Life, just like asana, asks us to hold two qualities that seem completely opposite. We need discipline, but we also need surrender. We need to show up consistently, but we also need to trust that not everything is ours to control. We need effort, but we also need ease.
When one outweighs the other, we suffer. When we cling too tightly, we become exhausted. When we surrender without effort, we become passive.
Yoga asks us to stand somewhere in the middle.
And Patanjali says that when we do, all dualities cease. It means that any conflict we have in the mind about ourselves and the world around us will come to end. Not because life suddenly becomes easy, but because we stop fighting what is happening.
I’ve been thinking about these three sutras a lot recently because, looking back, I can see that this past year has been teaching me exactly this lesson.
This year I poured an enormous amount of energy into building an in-person community here in Bali.
For years my work had existed almost entirely online, and in person retreats and trainings in my online community. Many students knew me through social media and Zoom, yet I realized that I barely had a local community of my own here in Bali. As I realized I had an addiction to Instagram, I wanted friendships that weren’t built through a screen. I wanted people to chant with, to practise with, to share meals with, to laugh with after class, in-real-life. I wanted my home to become a place where people genuinely gathered.
So I started saying yes. Yes to teaching more local yoga classes. Yes to singing kirtan several times a week, often unpaid or losing money. Yes to volunteering in my recovery community here in Bali chairing four meetings a week (One AA meeting, one ITAA, two Recovery Dharma). Yes to opening my home every week to kirtans, on donation, which sometimes worked, sometimes didn’t.
I even invested in building a rooftop yoga shala because I wanted to create a beautiful space where people could gather and practice together.
I kept going on building - and I don’t regret any of those decisions. In many ways, they gave me exactly what I needed. But there was one thing I wasn’t paying enough attention to. None of it was particularly sustainable financially.
I accepted work because it felt meaningful. I offered things for free because I genuinely wanted to build community. I served dinner after kirtan because I loved watching people stay and connect long after the chanting had ended. Somewhere along the way, I stopped asking a very important question.
Can all of this actually support the life I’m trying to build?
At one point in my life, there was a strange pattern that kept repeating itself.
The manager at a yoga studio I worked for in the past would ask me to sub classes. There were three occasions where I’d happily agree, eager to take an extra class, and move my schedule around, and arrive at the studio only to discover that someone else was already teaching. Sometimes the class had been cancelled entirely. Sometimes nobody seemed to know what had happened.
At first I found it frustrating. Then it became almost comical. Eventually I stopped volunteering to sub. One day a friend said something to me that completely changed the way I saw those moments.
He asked, “Have you ever thought that maybe God is speaking to you through this yoga studio manager?”
“And if God were speaking... what would God be saying?”
The answer arrived almost immediately. Slow down. Stop taking every class. You don’t need to say yes to everything. You’re exhausting yourself. Make space for your own creativity. (And yet, I didn’t listen to this!)
That conversation stayed with me, and ever since then I’ve found myself asking the same question whenever life interrupts my plans. If God were speaking through this situation, what would God be saying? It’s such a simple question, but it changes everything. Instead of immediately asking, “Why is this happening to me?” it asks, “What is this trying to teach me?”
One of the clearest examples came in the most unexpected way.
A few months ago I had to give my dad’s Canadian mobile number to my bank because a software update meant they would only send one-time passwords to a physical Canadian phone. For years I’d been using a digital number without any problems, but suddenly it no longer worked.
What I didn’t realise was that my dad would also begin receiving banking notifications.
Some people might think that’s an invasion of privacy. I honestly think of it as divine intervention. For weeks he kept asking me how my finances were going. I remember wondering why he suddenly seemed so interested. Eventually he admitted that he’d been seeing activity on my accounts.
It was humbling. And it was the wake-up call I needed. For about a week I was incredibly hard on myself. I kept replaying every business decision I’d made over the past year. Why had I focused so much energy on local teaching, even though it was unsustainable? Why had I transitioned away from my online business, when it was a model that worked? Why had I stepped away from Instagram when that’s how so many people discovered my work? Why had I taken on Kirtan gigs where I didn’t make enough money to pay my band? Had I made a huge mistake in diverting my attention away from my online community and into the in-person world here in Bali, where the competition is so high, and the revenue from classes is so low?
Then, yesterday morning while driving to a cafe to write, something inside me softened. I realized that none of those decisions had come from fear. They had come from healing. This past year wasn’t really about building my business. It was about taking care of myself after so many years of my business being my priority.
This last year, recovery became my priority. I threw myself into AA, chaired meetings, spent time in Internet & Technology Addicts Anonymous, and facilitated meetings with Recovery Dharma. I wanted to understand the roots of my addictions, I wanted to understand why I reached for distraction, achievement, validation, and busyness in the first place.
This allowed me to realize I was queer, start dating women, and come out publicly. That journey deserved time, attention, and gentleness.
I wanted to build friendships that reflected who I really was. I wanted to create a life in Bali that felt rooted rather than constantly passing through. When I look back through that lens, I don’t see a year of poor business decisions. I see a year of profound personal growth.
Financially, it may not have been my strongest year - but personally, I think it may have been one of the most joyful years of my life.
Interestingly, the external world seems to be reflecting that transition.
Almost every in-person offering I have planned for the rest of 2026 has slowed a lot. (But the start of 2027 is looking strong!)
I already have bookings for my New Years Eve Mexico Retreat in December
My Bhakti/Sober Circles Training in January is half booked
So if God were speaking to me through all of this, what would God be saying?
God is not saying to launch more events in Bali this fall, or market more, or that I am failing. God is telling me something I’ve been thinking about for a long time: it’s time for me to pivot back to the online community again, which worked, and to write.
It’s time for me to return back to our online Sober Women’s Yoga Community. It’s time to finish the Yoga Sutra book I’ve been talking about for years. It’s time for me to create something that can continue serving people long after one yoga class has ended.
For the first six or so years of my sobriety I was very good at sthira. I was very good at discipline, very good at consistency, very good at working incredibly hard on The Mindful Life Practice. So maybe this last year was about sukha, to trust, to surrender, to stop putting so much effort.
Interestingly, all of this has become clear during the Cancer New Moon. Cancer is associated with home, belonging, nourishment, and emotional security. The questions I’m asking myself are about creating a life that nourishes me, as much as I hope my work nourishes others. They’re about returning to a business model that feels sustainable instead of exhausting. And finding a rhythm that leaves room for creativity, writing, rest, friendship, and joy.
Maybe that’s what this next season is about. Not becoming someone completely different. Simply returning to what has always mattered, with a little more wisdom than I had before.
I can already feel that season beginning.
I decided to start running Sober Girls Yoga Circles again, and one of them quickly filled!
This weekend we’re opening our Women’s New Moon & Full Moon Kirtan Community online.
I’m planning our next retreat in Mexico.
And after years of drafting it, I’m finally sitting down to put together the daily Yoga Sutra Reader that’s been in the works since 2022.
It doesn’t feel like starting over, it feels like coming home.
And that’s what Patanjali means in this set of three sutras. When we balance effort with ease, when we stop forcing and start listening, and when we trust that interruptions and redirections can become teachers…then all dualities cease.
If you’d like to practice with me this month...
✨ Sobriety — There are still a few places available in Group B of Sober Girls Yoga (meeting tonight at 7pm Bali Time - 3pm Dubai / 12pm London!) Join us here.
🌙 Spirit — Join us inside our new Women’s Lunar Kirtan Community for online New Moon and Full Moon gatherings. The first New Moon gathering is this Sunday July 19th at 7am AWST, Bali Time. The first Full Moon Gathering is Saturday July 25th at 7pm AWST, Bali Time. Join Us here!
🌵 Adventure — Spend New Year’s with us on retreat in Mexico. There’s one early bird spot left, I’d love to have you with us!