10/26/2026
As a child, I learned to practice yoga with my parents’ guidance. Instructions were relatively limited and I was expected to practice by myself. By the time I reached the age of around 12 years, I was asked to draw my own yoga sequences and practice them (following Krishnamacharya’s sequencing and practice principles). I rarely practiced yoga in a group as a child, and I never attended a yoga training with a particular number of hours or syllabus.
If you learn yoga today, you’ll have a very different experience. You will learn from an instructor in a group a couple of times a week. The classes are segregated into yoga “styles” and new options come up every year.
Here is a point to ponder: If yoga classes don’t give you clarity and confidence to practice on your own, are you truly learning yoga?
Yoga is neither following instructions nor repeating what your teacher does. That is memorization with your body or your mind.
Truly learning yoga requires internalizing knowledge and experience until it becomes integral to your daily self. The insights that arise in this journey are termed prajñā in the Yoga Sutra and they give you clarity and confidence to achieve wellbeing and peace. When you offer knowledge and insight from your inner clarity and confidence, you are then a yoga teacher, not merely an instructor.
Dr. Ganesh Mohan
Join us in Yoga Sutras & Samkhya as we explore the principles that form the foundation of yogic practice—and discover how these timeless teachings can transform the way we live.
For details, click the link in the first comment.