I've practised yoga on and off for most of my life.
My earliest memories go back to childhood in Ghana, where I was introduced to yoga at around five years old. Yet, despite being Indian, I realised relatively recently (and rather surprisingly, in my mid-forties) just how little I knew about its philosophical foundations.
Last year, during my sabbatical, I decided to complete my 200-hour yoga teacher training in Thailand. My intention wasn't necessarily to become a yoga teacher in the conventional sense (I kinda prefer being the one listening to guidance rather than the one giving it!), but I had an inkling that I wanted to deepen my relationship with a practice I'd had a somewhat ambivalent relationship with for decades, and perhaps reconnect with an aspect of my cultural heritage.
What I hadn't anticipated was that the part of the training I'd find most fascinating wouldn't be the physical practice at all. It would be the philosophy.
Discovering Yoga Beyond the Mat
Like many people, much of my experience of yoga had been shaped by its Westernised presentation. Fancy yoga studios, expensive yoga retreats, and who was doing all this yoga? The bendy babes in Lululemon. Hot yoga, goat yoga, beer yoga, even wine yoga. I'm not throwing shade at anyone who enjoys these things, but somewhere along the way, a practice with extraordinarily rich philosophical foundations seemed to have become predominantly associated with physical postures, flexibility and fitness (and whiteness).
During my teacher training, I was properly introduced to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and the Eight Limbs of Yoga. I remember feeling genuinely surprised that I'd practised yoga for so long and hadn't really heard about any of this.
The Eight Limbs offer a framework for understanding yoga as something much broader than what happens on a mat. They encompass ethical principles, personal observances, physical postures, breath regulation, concentration, meditation and more.
What struck me was that the first limb wasn't Asana, the physical postures. It was Yama: five ethical principles concerned with how we conduct ourselves and relate to the world around us.
Before we even get to the physical practice, we're invited to consider how we live. Which, of course, as a therapist, is right up my street!
Where Yoga Philosophy Meets Psychology
As an integrative arts psychotherapist, I've spent much of my professional life exploring what it means to be human. I'm interested in how our experiences shape us, why we think, feel and behave as we do, and how we navigate the complexities of relationships, identity and change.
Something I've always felt strongly about is demystifying psychology. I don't believe psychological ideas should be confined to therapy rooms or academic textbooks. Understanding a little more about our own minds can be useful to all of us, whether or not we've ever attended therapy. It's something I make a point of incorporating into my own therapeutic work.
I'm a firm believer that knowledge is power and awareness is key. Not because understanding ourselves automatically makes life easier, but because awareness can create opportunities for choice.
And this is where I began to see interesting connections between yoga philosophy and psychology.
Both offer ways of exploring some of life's bigger questions. How do we live well? How do we relate to ourselves and others? What shapes our behaviour? How do we respond to discomfort, uncertainty or suffering?
Of course, they're not the same thing. Yoga philosophy emerges from ancient Indian spiritual traditions, while contemporary psychology draws on different histories, theories and methods. But I don't think they need to be interchangeable to offer interesting perspectives on some of the same human experiences.
Why I Created the Workshops
This curiosity eventually became the starting point for my Applied Yoga Philosophy workshop series.
I wanted to create something I wished I'd encountered earlier in my own yoga journey. A space where we could explore yoga beyond physical postures, engage with its philosophical teachings and consider their relevance to everyday life.
Not as a set of rules to follow or ideals we must achieve, but as invitations to reflect with other curious minds.
The first series focuses on the Yamas, the five ethical principles described in Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga. Each week, we explore one of these principles alongside a psychological concept, theory or tool, through reading, reflection, journalling and group discussion.
The workshops aren't therapy, nor are they conventional yoga classes. They're facilitated spaces for curiosity, reflection and conversation.
And I don't see myself as someone with all the answers. I'm a student of these ideas too. I bring my experience as a psychotherapist, my training as a yoga teacher and my own reflections, but I also believe there's enormous value in learning from one another.
Creating this series is, in many ways, my small contribution to something I'd like to see more of in the world: a recognition that yoga has much to offer beyond flexibility and fitness, and that its philosophical teachings deserve space in contemporary conversations about wellbeing.
I don't expect everyone to leave with a profound revelation. Sometimes a new question, a different perspective or a moment of recognition is enough.
And perhaps that's what I hope these workshops will offer most of all: a space to slow down, think a little more deeply and explore how ancient wisdom and contemporary psychology might help us navigate the wonderfully complicated business of being human.
