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Hello Reader

Welcome to the July newsletter.

The title of this month's article is:

Sthira and Sukha: the foundations of effective yoga teaching

I hope you find something thought-provoking or useful for your teaching in there. If you'd like to chat about the topic further - do come along to a Q&A meeting.

The next yoga teacher Q&A get-together on Zoom is on Saturday 12th July at 10-11am. The Zoom link will arrive in a separate email. See you there!

Love and light,

Keep scrolling for:

🤷🏻 Article: Sthira and Sukha: the foundations of effective yoga teaching

👉 News, resources and more about our Q&A get-togethers

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Article:

Sthira and Sukha:

The foundations of effective yoga teaching

The balance of steadiness and ease - sthira and sukha - isn’t just an esoteric idea from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. It’s the fundamental essence of moving and living in a human body.

When sthira and sukha are a guiding principle every yoga class, it changes and deepens the experience for the students.

Keeping the balance of the two in mind as we teach helps students to feel grounded, steady, strong, relaxed and adaptable in their practice - no matter what version or modification of a pose they are practising.

This article is for yoga teachers who want to reflect on how they can weave the principle of sthira sukham asanam more deeply into every class as something real and embodied.
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What does Patanjali say?

Patanjali doesn’t say much about asana.

Sutra 2.46 says: sthira sukham asanam - translated as ‘steadiness and ease in posture’.
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• Sthira means steadiness, strength, alertness.
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• Sukha means ease, comfort, or literally ‘good space’.

It's not many words, but it's absolutely key. As yoga teachers, helping our students develop an adaptable relationship between sthira and sukha in practice is vital as it's often out of balance. We may not know why, but we can notice it and address it.
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When we focus on this concept in our teaching, we’re not only reflecting the roots and philosophical underpinnings of yoga, but we’re also making the practices we teach more sustainable, more mindful, and offering opportunities to develop more resilience in body and mind to the people we are teaching.

Why balance matters

Sthira and sukha exist in a continuous dance. Sometimes one leads, sometimes the other.
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If you look at any one joint - it needs both to work well and avoid injury.

In the knee joint, for example, one knee stabilises with more sthira so that it can bear your body weight effectively, while the other releases with more sukha to be able to bend and then absorb the impact as the leg steps forward. Then they swap roles as you take the next step. It’s a beautiful coordination of muscle action that we tend not to think about until something goes wrong.
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This principle applies to all movement, in every joint of the body and in every yoga pose. If the balance tips too far one way, we get clumsy, or we get hurt. But when we get it right, movement feels so much better, and may even reduce existing pain.

Yoga students experiencing improved movement when you guide them in class, sometimes can’t quite put their finger on what they are feeling, but they know they want to come back and experience it again.
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“Getting the balance right keeps yoga students coming back to experience that feeling again.”

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What it looks like in practice

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👣 Grounding through the feet

When we’re teaching, we need to give cues relating to both qualities to elicit optimal movement. Sometimes we choose to emphasise one that is lacking, but both are always there.

The feet require a lot of sthira to support the weight of the whole body, which is inherent in their tight structure, but an overly rigid and unyielding foot will reduce stability in standing and walking and increase the chance of injury.

Conversely a collapsed foot will not fully support the structures above it, and may cause tension or collapse higher up in the body. Activating the feet will provide more support.

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If someone is in Warrior 2 pose, for example, and looks quite rigid through the whole body, or looks a bit wobbly or worried, then we can emphasise grounding cues.
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Things like:

· “Allow the soles of your feet to spread into the floor.”

· “Imagine the footprints you’re making on the mat becoming bigger.”

· “Imagine you're making two perfect footprints in the sand.”
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These sorts of cues can help people feel their contact with the ground and 'wake the feet up'. This improves proprioception which neurologically leads to better support in the whole pose through improved balance between sthira and sukha. This can bring about a more powerful feeling.

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⬇️ Softening the shoulders

We also want a sense of grounding in the shoulder girdle, but without collapsing the chest or upper spine. In Warrior 2 again, the arms are out to the sides. Often the shoulders can be hunched up rather then resting on the ribcage.

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So we might say:

· “Relax your shoulders down away from the ears.”

· “Let your shoulders rest on the top of your ribcage.”

· “Gently draw your shoulder blades down your back.”

💪 Cueing power without tension

When people are holding with excess effort - too much sthira - we might need to bring in more sukha to create more efficient body use. We can use words like ease, breathe, softness, finding space. But that doesn’t mean to collapse or switch off. It's about helping people to find a way to work that feels powerful but not strained or performative.
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Strength doesn’t always mean effort. Often the muscle effort is less when the steadying effect is more. Over-efforting is wasteful of energy and brings an excess of sthira and lack of sukha.

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So we could say:

· “Stand tall while the soles of your feet yield into the floor.”

· “Reach into the space with your fingertips and soften your arm pits.”

· “Maintain an upright spine and neck and gaze towards the horizon.”
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A warrior is strong, steady and alert, but also relaxed, poised and ready for anything. Imagination can have a powerful effect on the body. So any imagery and poetic language can be useful, if it's inducing a sense of flow and balance between sthira and sukha, ground and space.
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“Sthira is power, not tension.”

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Language use in cueing movement

Here's a simple movement to experiment with:

From standing in Tadasana, arms by your sides, breathe in slowly through your nose and raise your arms overhead, keeping them parallel. Breathe out through your nose and reverse the movement to bring the arms back down. Repeat a few times and see how that movement feels today. (Do modify the movement to avoid any shoulder discomfort.)
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Focus on the cues below, one at a time. Keep the words in mind while you repeat the movement. Notice how the movement feels.
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• Imagine that your arms are really long as you reach out.
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• Be aware of the space all around you.
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• Let your body weight drop down through your feet into the ground as your fingertips reach up to the sky.
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See if any of these cues change the subtle quality of the movement or the breath. Some may, some may not. As we’re all different, and may express movements differently on different days, we have to find the cues that work right now, for ourselves and for our students. If you are able to observe subtle changes, try some of your own cues and observe what happens.

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Beyond the mat

Improving the balance of sthira and sukha is about helping our bodies organise themselves better by exploring our relationships with gravity, with the space around us, and the beliefs we hold about our bodies/the world/yoga poses, and what is going on in our heads as we practice.

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This work applies to everyday life as well of course. Strength with flexibility - sthira and sukha - are one of the pairs of opposites that Patanjali mentions in Sutra 2.48 that, when out of balance, cause us suffering.
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A small cue that hits the spot might be just the thing someone remembers from their yoga class when they’re standing in a queue or sitting at a desk or practising meditation. We’re helping students build a practice that strengthens and softens, bringing greater ease to body and mind.

Sthira and sukha are always there and offer endless possibilities for teaching. As part of your teaching you can model it in yourself. You can be creative with language, observe, offer appropriate cues, and see what works.

Finding new ways to bring flow back to the dance between stability and ease offers our students real tools for life.
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News and resources

Yoga Teacher Q&A sessions

Our two-monthly Q&A sessions are short, impactful meetings designed to inspire, connect, and support us all in our yoga teaching. Join us at the next session to share, listen, and get inspired. - more here

• Saturday 12th July at 10-11am
• Saturday 20th September at 10-11am

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. Anyone not subscribed can sign up here.

(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​

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

👉 Knee function in asana mini-ebook (free): Get the ebook here​

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

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Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to any yoga teacher friends or colleagues who might be interested in any of the content. They can sign up to receive newsletters to their own inbox at www.yogauk.com
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