Yoga Teaching and Learning
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Hello Reader

Welcome to the August newsletter. The title of this month's article is:

How holistic are your yoga classes?

If you'd like to chat about this topic further or share your own thoughts - do come along to one of our Q&A meetings (these are free of charge to subscribers).

Love and light,

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🤷🏻 Article: How holistic are your yoga classes?

👉 News, resources and Q&A meeting dates and how to join

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Article:

How holistic are your yoga classes?

Most yoga teachers want to offer a practice that supports the whole person – not simply stretching and relaxing. But what does that actually mean in practice?

To teach holistically, we need to understand what holism is and how it contrasts with the necessity to break things down into parts as we teach. This article explores why we need both strategies.

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Definitions

Holism is the understanding that a whole system is more than just a collection of its individual parts. It has certain qualities and beauty that emerge only when everything works together.

Teaching yoga holistically means seeing yoga not merely as a series of postures or breathing techniques, but as a whole process that nurtures balance and connection between body, mind, and spirit.
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Reductionism is the opposite of this, and describes the way we break things down into smaller parts in order to understand complex systems.

Science, medicine, psychology and education couldn’t exist without breaking ideas down into manageable parts. We also do this all the time in everyday life, for example when explaining something to someone, making a to-do list, or planning a course.

Breaking concepts down into bite-size pieces helps make complexity more understandable. It allows us to categorise and analyse, and to organise less than optimal situations.
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The pros and cons of reductionism

Science works by focusing on identifiable parts, measuring them and testing them. This gives us useful data which has led to many life-changing breakthroughs in medicine and engineering.

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Our understanding of biology helps us in teaching yoga – we know where muscles are, how fascia works, how the nervous system functions, how we breathe. This helps us teach more safely and clearly through informed cueing and guidance.
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BUT…​
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When we get stuck in reductionism, and forget that the parts belong to a multi-faceted whole, then something gets lost. And that ‘something’ matters a lot.
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What is that ‘something’?

Life is a mystery. Its complexity is way beyond our understanding, even though we have an intimate experience of it.

Biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake says:
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​"There is still no proof that life and minds can be explained by physics and chemistry alone."
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All living things are based on relationships. A body operates because of intricate dynamic relationships between each of the anatomical systems, and its relationship with gravity.
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Psychologist Dr Saul McLeod says:
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​"Reductionist explanations, which might work in some circumstances, are considered inappropriate to the study of human subjectivity because here, the emergent property that we have to take account of is that of the whole person."
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In other words, if you reduce someone’s experience to data, you stop seeing the experience itself.

Emergence

When you put lots of small, simple things together in just the right way, under the right conditions, sometimes something arises. It doesn’t just become more complicated - it becomes something new. This is known as ‘emergence’.

For example:

🐜 An ant can’t do much on its own. But a whole colony builds cities, farms fungus, and defends territory. Intelligence seems to emerge from the group, not the individual ants.

🧘 In yoga: breathwork, gentle movements, and sustained attention, each do something small. But when you integrate them skilfully, a state of flow or awareness arises - something more than just breath and asana.

This emergence of intelligence, wisdom or insight comes not from the parts themselves, but from how they interact within a whole.
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Using our knowledge

Knowledge only works if you remember why and how you’re using it.

Developmental biologist Michael Levin writes:
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​“Reductionism is well-named. It reduces what you can do. It reduces your ability to exploit what’s really powerful about these systems.”
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He’s talking about all living systems - from cells to bodies to minds. The whole behaves in ways you can’t predict just by studying the parts. It has its own intelligence.
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The same is true for yoga. The magic isn’t in the muscle or joint, or the meditation technique - it’s in the dynamic and complex relationships between body, movement, awareness and meaning.

It’s one thing to know the biomechanics and variations of the function of the psoas muscle. It’s another thing to understand why a person flinches as they lie down in savasana.
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Teaching the person, not the problem

We never see the whole story when we observe a yoga student. We may not know why someone is holding their breath or finding balance difficult.

Life events, love and grief, personality and mood, shape how a person moves, breathes, and shows up on the mat.

So humility is important – remembering that there will always be way more that we don’t know than we do.
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We also need to remember that people are not the problems they come to yoga with. And nor are they misalignments to be fixed. Each person is the sum of their unique body, mind and life experience.
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Holding on to wholeness

So what can we do when reductionism is necessary?​
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🕺 Use anatomy to inform your teaching, but don’t forget to meet the person where they are.

👉 Offer clear and precise instructions, but leave room for self-enquiry and exploration.

💖 Study the science, but hold a space for mystery and not knowing.

🚗 Teach the pose - but also, more importantly, the process.

🌍 Keep the whole in view and trust in the intelligence of the body.

👣 Be aware of yourself as part of your student’s experience and be mindful of your stance, your attitude and how you communicate.
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Finding the balance

Teaching yoga holistically doesn’t mean we have to abandon detail or anatomical knowledge.

By moving fluidly between specific areas of focus, while at the same time maintaining awareness of the whole being, we create space for the emergence of real learning, healing and insight.
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News and resources

Yoga Teacher Q&A sessions

Our Q&A sessions are short, impactful meetings designed to connect and support us all in our yoga teaching. Join the next session to share, listen, and get inspired:

• Saturday 20th September at 10-11am
• Saturday 29th November at 10-11am

At our previous meeting we discussed burnout and how to avoid it, amongst other topics. Next time we'll share ideas on - whatever you would like to bring up! More info here

These meetings are open to all yoga teachers and are free of charge. You'll receive an invitation by email the day before if you are subscribed to this newsletter. (New subscribers can sign up here.)

Remember you can click 'Preferences' at the bottom of any email to turn off the mailings you prefer not to receive.

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For your students:
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👉 NEW BWY Foundation Course - starting January 2026 (online)
​See information about the previous course here and they can email andrea@yogauk.com to be the first to receive the course information pack as soon as it's available.

👉 NEW BWY level 4 Diploma in Yoga Teaching - 500-hour teacher training starting September 2026 (in-person plus online)
Contact andrea@yogauk.com for more information.
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For yoga teachers:

👉 Essential Anatomy and Physiology for Yoga Teaching online study - more information here​

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