01 Begin · A short introduction for your first weeks of yoga
Yoga 101
What yoga actually is, why your mind wanders, and how to practice: ten short steps, about an hour start to finish, and worth slowing down for. By the end, a lot more of what happens in class will make sense.
- Start hereWhat yoga actually isThe oldest definition is one line long, and it isn't about postures.
- The mind was always restlessA wandering mind isn't failure. It's the very thing the practice was built for.
- Practice, definedLong time, no interruption, real attention. That's the entire secret.
- The map: eight limbsPostures are one limb of eight. Here is the whole tree.
- The body is the instrumentHaṭha yoga takes the body seriously, as a doorway, not a destination.
- Breath is the leverThe oldest claim in the manual: steady the breath, steady the mind.
- Where this comes fromYour teacher learned it from a teacher. The chain is long, and three books anchor it.
- Four paths up one mountainThe Gita meets people where they are: doers, lovers, thinkers, sitters.
- Yoga off the matThe Gita's move: bring the practice into a working life.
- Stillness, and where it leadsWhat the settled mind is like, and an invitation to keep going.
- Put it into practiceYour first practiceA guided 15-minute practice that brings the course into the body. No experience needed.
Before your first classNever set foot in a studio? Know what to expect.What actually happens in a beginner class, the words you'll hear, and what nobody expects you to know yet.Between classesHeard a word in class? Look it up.Ahimsa, vinyasa, savasana: the concepts, each traced to the texts, or honestly marked modern.
Every verse quoted in these steps comes straight from the texts themselves. Open any citation to read it in full, compare translators, and check us. Nothing is paraphrased from memory.