Yoga Teaching and Learning​
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Hello Reader

Welcome to the September newsletter!

This month's article is about YOGA, HEALING & WHOLENESS, exploring what the word 'healing' actually means, and how yoga can support the healing process. But first - here are three courses and workshops currently open for booking:
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APPLIED ANATOMY CPD WORKSHOP FOR YOGA TEACHERS

🔶 CUEING FOR INDIVIDUAL BODIES 🔶
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📅 Saturday 26th September 2026, 10am–1pm
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Turn anatomical knowledge into clearer, more useful cues that work for individual bodies.
​Find out more about this workshop →​

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​Book the series here and get access to the recording of the first workshop, Observation. The workshops are linked, but each stands alone.

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🔶 Still time to join the BWY FOUNDATION COURSE ONLINE 🔶

The course has just started - but it’s not too late to join.

The online course is for yoga students who want to explore yoga more deeply alongside their weekly classes, or who are considering yoga teacher training. (This is not a teacher training course.)

If you have students who might be interested,
​find out more about the course here →​

🔶 COMING SOON: BUILDING CONFIDENCE AND REVITALISING YOUR YOGA TEACHING 🔶

I’m putting the finishing touches to this new online course, which should be ready in the next few weeks. Pre-book now for £15 — this discount price will no longer be available once the course is published.

​Find out more and pre-book →​

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Keep scrolling for this month's article, which I hope you enjoy.

with love and best wishes,

​yogaandrolfing.co.uk​

Article:

YOGA, HEALING & WHOLENESS

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What does 'healing' mean?

In modern English, the word ‘healing’ usually describes the process of recovering from illness or injury. But the origins of the word invite us to think more broadly about what healing means.

Our word healing comes from the Old English hælan, meaning to cure or make whole. It’s also related to hāl, meaning whole, sound or healthy (as in the phrase ‘hale and hearty’) and also to the word halig, meaning holy.

So this Old English word family has given us the words whole, hale, health, heal, healing and holy – all suggesting ideas of wholeness, wellbeing and becoming whole.
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Healing, then, can be seen as moving towards greater wholeness in the physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual aspects of our lives. And these are all interconnected – a physical injury, for example, can evoke sadness, anger, anxiety or depression, and can alter your sense of self, life purpose and meaning.

So healing is not simply about curing what is wrong with us. To heal can be understood more widely as a process of becoming more whole by creating conditions that support good health and allow the healing process to occur more readily.
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The therapeutic value of yoga

Yoga classes are not therapy sessions. But yoga can be highly therapeutic.

Stillness, conscious breathing and slow movement can support relaxation and calm the nervous system.

Even when we are mainly doing an asana practice, the mind is becoming more meditative and focused, which can help us to regulate our emotions.

Yoga philosophy woven into a physical practice can help too, by encouraging us to reflect - on our relationship with the yama and niyama for example - and to develop healthier patterns of thought.
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The therapeutic value of yoga is therefore not simply that particular practices produce particular effects. It lies in the way practice can gradually influence the whole person – body, breath, mind, emotions and the way we engage with our lives.
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Yoga for rehabilitation

Students rehabilitating from injury or surgery often seek out yoga to support them in their healing. People living with chronic pain or illness, experiencing bereavement, anxiety or burnout, or dealing with the effects of past trauma, will also often show up in our yoga classes.

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Yoga teachers can feel that they want to do something special for these students – to find the right practices for their condition, or somehow help to fix what is wrong. But this is not our role as teachers, and even if we are qualified to provide treatment, this is not appropriate in a yoga class setting.

Students often practise yoga alongside medical care, which both take very different approaches. The yoga teacher doesn’t need to be focused on an outcome.

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Our role is to teach yoga well and enable people to participate in an appropriate practice. This means adapting a practice when someone's circumstances require it, rather than trying to devise a treatment for them.

Someone recovering from an operation may need slower transitions, more stillness or permission to do less. Someone living with pain may need to be taught adjustments to poses or encouraged to rest when pain arises.

Pain is something that yoga teachers need to understand so that they know how to guide people living with pain.

We're not trying to make pain or other symptoms disappear through yoga (though that can sometimes happen). But we can help people learn to practise in relationship to their symptoms – noticing what makes symptoms worse, modifying their practice to avoid causing further pain, knowing when to stop, rest, change the approach or seek appropriate medical help. In this way they can gain the healing benefits of yoga, despite the pain and other limitations they are living with.

Ailing students also need to learn that relaxation practice is an important part of yoga, and that they're 'not missing anything' if they take extra time to rest.
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Creating a healing environment

In Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita, verses 11-12 describe the setting for a yoga practice - you should find a secluded place, lay kusha grass on firm ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. You should sit on a meditation seat that is neither too high nor too low.

It's interesting that this ancient text specifies preparing your environment as something worth attending to before your practice. Environment impacts a yoga practice as much now as it did when this text was written.

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The environment that a yoga teacher creates for a class begins with the physical surroundings, but the way the class is held and the framework it provides are also part of that environment.

It can be tempting for students to use a yoga class in a lovely space with your calming voice guiding them as an escape from the challenges of real life. This can be enjoyable and provide some short term beneficial effects which can be excellent first steps for a beginner. But something more is needed for longer term healing and development.

Yoga invites us to be with ourselves in the moment, however we are feeling. This is not always easy.

In a relaxed and supported environment we can begin to feel safe enough to soften restricted breathing, let go of held muscle tension, develop a better relationship with gravity, allow more flowing movement, face fears and self-reflect.

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A yoga class offers a place where we can relax and gently be with ourselves, letting go when we’re ready, but without having to fix or run away from anything. It takes practice.

Creating and leading a yoga practice for our students provides a necessary disciplined framework, but that framework can be lightly held. We can encourage students to pay attention to what they are experiencing, to modify or rest when they need to, and to explore their relationship with themselves through principles of yoga, such as the balance of sthira and sukha, or abhyasa and vairagya.

This is part of what makes a yoga class a healing environment. Healing is not something you can make happen. As teachers we are creating a space in which students can practise, pay attention and put some loving space around whatever they are experiencing.

Time and patience

As teachers, we can't ‘make someone heal’. But we can teach practices that help people to be with what they are experiencing, without forcing themselves through it or constantly trying to overcome it.
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Healing doesn't run according to a schedule. I've known people who have had two knee replacements where the first one heals quickly and the other takes far longer. There's no knowing.

If you would like to see more birds in your garden, you don’t go outside and call to them to persuade them to come over. Instead, you lay out some tasty looking food and you make sure the bird table is away from potential predators so they feel safe to approach.

Then you back off and give them time to eye up the offering. If you're patient, when they feel safe enough they will come to the table to feast, while you watch them from afar.

Some days the birds might not come at all and you don't know why. Patience is needed.

Healing is a process, and it doesn't necessarily proceed in a straight line or take the route you expect. And it's not something you can control.

What you can control is to provide an attractive and welcoming environment and to offer engaging practices and a safe space to explore.

Our job is not to determine the outcome, but to offer a healing environment. When the students are ready, they relax, listen, explore and we can observe the healing process beginning to happen.
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Conclusion

As yoga teachers, we don't heal people. We teach yoga to people who are healing.

We don't need to know about every ailment in detail or find the perfect practice for every condition. We need to teach yoga well, enable individuals to participate in an appropriate practice, guide them in managing pain and other challenges with care, and create an environment in which they can be with themselves and allow the healing process to unfold.

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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