#187 Resting with the Sutras: A New Way to Study Together

I am SO excited to start Sutras-Inspired Yin with you all on Zoom in February! Join me!

For the last few years, I’ve been teaching Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras almost every single day.

What began as a curiosity slowly became a devotion.

My Yoga Sutra Study used to be a full-year course, where I gathered with small groups of women to move slowly through every single sutra. We studied, questioned, reflected, and shared how these ancient teachings were showing up in our real, modern lives.

It was an intense, deep, lengthy, powerful, and profoundly meaningful container, one that I felt incredibly honoured to hold.

This January was the first month in years that I didn’t teach the sutras.

After so much sustained teaching, I needed a pause.
A little space.
A breath.

And yet… I’ve really missed them.

(And many of you have told me you’ve missed them too!)

I will be offering another intellectual Yoga Sutra Study beginning in April — a ten-week course with access to 19 recorded 90-minute classes for those who want to study the text in depth again. (This Sutra Study is here!)

But so many of you have already taken that course — some of you once, some of you twice — and I felt called to offer something different.

A new way of meeting the teachings.
Less cognitive.
More embodied.
More spacious.
More lived.

At one point someone suggested we study one sutra a week — and while I loved the intention, it also felt like it would take us about four years to get anywhere.

Still, that seed stayed with me.

At the same time, I’ve been absolutely loving getting on Zoom with you every Monday morning for our Bali Bhakti Flows. We’re currently in the final two weeks of our third series, and those weekly gatherings have reminded me how powerful it is to simply practice together.

So, somewhere between rest and inspiration, this new offering arrived:

Resting with the Sutras

This is not a study course in the traditional sense.

Each week we will explore one sutra through:

• a short dharma talk

• chanting the sutra together

• yin yoga postures, held for longer periods while I offer gentle reflections on the teaching

• a meditation practice

• and an optional sharing at the end

This is about resting inside the wisdom, rather than trying to understand it all at once.

The first series will focus on Yoga Sūtras 1.1–1.4, the foundational teachings:

• arriving in the practice

• understanding what yoga actually is

• resting as the witness

• and noticing when we forget who we are

We’ll begin in February, explore the first three sutras, then take a two-week pause while I’m in India, returning in March to complete the fourth sutra.

From there, we’ll continue with Sūtras 1.5–1.14 in April and May, after my next 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. These sutras explore the movements of the mind — perception, misperception, imagination, sleep, memory, and the slow cultivation of steady practice.

You can join for:

• the first four classes, or

• the full series (the first four + the next ten)

This approach feels deeply aligned with where I am now as a teacher — and with what so many of us are craving.

This will be less intellectual and more embodied.
Less striving.
More listening.

It’s perfect for those of you who’ve already studied the sutras and want to meet them again in a new way — but no prior experience is needed at all.

If you’re longing to slow down, soften, and practice in community, I would truly love to have you with us.

I am really excited for the Sutras to come alive again!

You will get HD recordings & long-term access to these classes, to replay anytime.

Looking forward to sharing the practice with you!