What Yoga Taught Me About Stillness, Power, and Presence

I didn't come to yoga looking for transformation.

I came because I was tired.

Untethered.

A little lost, if I'm honest.

I came because I needed a reason to come back to my body —

and something told me it was waiting for me there.

What I found wasn't just a practice of movement.

It was a practice of remembering.

Yoga taught me how to sit in silence.

How to soften without collapsing.

How to stand in power without pushing.

And — most importantly — how to be fully here.

Stillness Is Not Empty

In the beginning, stillness felt uncomfortable.

Like I should be doing something. Proving something. Producing something.

But on the mat, with nowhere to go and no one to impress,

I started to notice…

the way my breath would tremble when I slowed down,

the way my thoughts raced just before they softened,

the way my body would speak, if I gave her space.

Stillness, I learned, is not the absence of movement.

It's the presence of attention.

It's where the noise falls away and the truth quietly rises.

Power Is Not Performance

There was a time when I thought power meant intensity.

The deepest backbend. The strongest pose. The longest hold.

But yoga — the kind that meets you where you are —

taught me that real power lives in awareness.

In noticing when you're clenching.

In choosing to ease instead of override.

In staying with a sensation, not to conquer it, but to understand it.

True power is rooted, not rigid.

It doesn't demand. It doesn't perform.

It belongs to you — and you don't need to prove it.

Presence Is a Muscle You Can Strengthen

There were days I cried in savasana.

Not because I was broken — but because I was finally listening.

Presence came in glimpses at first.

The feel of breath on skin.

The sound of my heart, steady and alive.

The knowing that I didn't have to go anywhere to arrive.

The more I practiced, the more I noticed:

presence isn't something we chase.

It's something we choose — moment by moment, breath by breath.

A Short Restorative Practice: Return to You

Here's a sequence I return to often — especially in tender seasons:

1. Child's Pose (Balasana)

Knees wide, forehead to the mat or a pillow
Arms forward or wrapped alongside the body
Stay for 2–3 minutes, breathing into the back body

2. Supported Reclining Bound Angle (Supta Baddha Konasana)

Lie back on a cushion or bolster
Soles of the feet together, knees relaxed open, supported by props
Place one hand on your heart, one on your belly
Breathe here for 5–10 minutes

3. Seated Stillness

Sit comfortably with your spine long
Eyes closed or soft
Focus on your breath — no need to control it
Whisper to yourself: "I am here."

Let this be enough.

Let it be holy.

In the End, Yoga Brought Me Home

Not to a version of myself that's more flexible or more enlightened —

but to the version that was always underneath:

the one who knows how to be still,

how to feel,

how to trust,

how to stay.

This is the true gift of yoga.

Not what it makes you do — but what it helps you remember.

That your body is wise.

That your breath is sacred.

That presence is power.

And that coming home to yourself is a daily, devotional act.

If you're longing for gentle guidance or sacred support on your yoga journey, I invite you to explore my offerings. Together, we can create practices that help you return to your body, your breath, and your own deep wisdom — again and again.

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