my 5-step philosophy self study method
get more philosophy into your teaching, as naturally as possible
When I was launching the first Philosophy Club at the end of last year, I shared this post about keen so many of us are to weave more depth into our teachings but often don’t know how to go about it and so many of you resonated with that feeling.
I’ve struggled for a long time to find classes that feel like they really teach me something, rather than just guiding me through a practice (which can still be incredibly nourishing in itself!). But when we talk about how there’s so much more to yoga than asana, sometimes we have to take matters into our own hands in how we learn more about ‘the other stuff’.
In recent months, I’ve felt it helpful to separate out those deeper yoga teachings and treat them as their own dedicated practice, just with no mat necessary.
It’s been a bit of a process - figuring out how to learn, practice and actually make things land.
I’m sure my own process will keep evolving the more I do it, but for now I wanted to share the method I’m using at the moment that’s taken my learning from ‘just reading the texts and hoping something sticks’ (which I did for a LONG time) to actually seeing it really make a difference in my teaching in such a natural way.
If you want to study alongside our community for some accountability and support, read to the bottom for the details of the next round of Philosophy Club - the next round starts 03/03! Otherwise this whole process works as a solo, standalone method.
This is nothing revolutionary; it’s actually embarrassingly simple. But sometimes we just need things spelling out for us in a step-by-step process, so we realise how easy it is to fit into our lives.
Despite it’s simplicity, it’s seen a real shift in my relationship with that side of my teaching. It’s made theming a thousand times easier and helped me feel way more confident just pulling on little nuggets of yoga wisdom in class without it feeling forced or needing to be pre-planned.
Before we begin, a couple of things you need..
The first thing is time. Not loads of it, but dedicated time.
Mentally, treat this work like ‘doing your practice’ - roll out your mat after all if that helps you feel like your bounding that window of time, or block off a chunk of your day in the same way you would if you were doing an asana-based practice. Give it the headspace it deserves.
The second thing that’s needed here is depth. You need to be prepared to take a tiny piece and go deep into it. You’re welcome to sit and see how many sutras you can read in an hour, or even buy a book of beautiful commentary, but you can end up just collecting a bunch of lovely ideas this way, rather than actually absorbing them. Think quality over quantity.
If you want the magic of the texts to make their way into your mind, your life and your teaching in a way that makes it incredibly natural to draw on in random classes, conversations or life’s moments of chaos, the texts need exploring from every angle you can imagine. It’ll blow your little mind how much there can be in one seemingly short phrase.
The final (slightly less conceptual) thing that can help is some sort of commentary to work with. I use The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri Swami Satchidananda which I’ve had since my YTT days, but last month I also picked up a copy of The Secret Power of Yoga by Nischala Joy Devi and I’m looking forward to working with that too.
Specifically in the past months I’ve been focussing on the sutras because when I started this practice, it’s what felt most accessible, but there’s more to ‘yoga philosophy’ than just those. The exact same rules apply in other texts so go with the Gita, the HYP or any other text of your choosing - in fact, if I do a round 3 of Philosophy Club we may well mix it up a bit.
You can use the internet rather than having a printed commentary, but like when Googling anything it can get pretty overwhelming pretty quickly. I definitely do have a browse of other translations when I’m writing (especially for the more mind blowing sutras!) but I like to use the written texts I have first.
Once we have those three ingredients…we cook!
(Again, seriously I feel like this is almost too painfully a basic process to write…but if it helps to prompt even one of you from not learning philosophy to even dedicating one hour a month to this practice, it’s worth it!)
step one // picking
Pick a sutra. Any sutra (or a tiny chunk of whatever text you’re choosing)
If I often close my eyes and point - there's something in there about trusting that whatever comes up is exactly what you needed to look at right now. And this can also help you avoid dodging the tricky ones!
I’d avoid just going for the sutras you sort of already feel like you know. It might feel like it’ll make it easier, but there’s something to be said for challenging yourself with something fresh.
There’s definitely a case for ‘starting at the start’ because of the way the sutras are written (they have an order that makes sense!) so if that vibes, go for it. But for me, it feels a bit stifling and I know I wouldn’t be as into it. You do you.
step two // brain dumping
DON’T keep reading onto the written commentary of that sutra. Not yet.
You might have landed on a sutra that’s familiar to you in which case, this part might flow a bit easier.
Close your eyes or sit quietly for a moment and let the sutra roll around in your head. If it’s a long one, feel free to keep your eyes firmly open and read the translation 3, 4, 20 times.
See how it lands. Does it feel like it’s obvious in its meaning? Or like it means absolutely nothing to you and you’re totally confused?
Then you’re going to take a pen (or keyboard) and just free write. This could be in a flow of structured sentences, but I like to go more for bullet points.
Sometimes this step is like trying to start a car on a cold morning - nothing happens for ages, then suddenly BAM. You’re off. Other times you'll be flying straight away with ideas falling over themselves to get out. Either way, just get it all down.
Let it be completely fucking random - no one has to see this. It doesn’t even have to feel like it’s related to what the meaning ‘should be’, simply spew out whatever’s there in your head like a bunch of dots. You can join them up later.
If you’re working through the sutras as part of Philosophy Club, you can use some of the reflection prompts I share to get you thinking about particular themes and questions - though do your free flow brain dump first before you get to those!
step three // reading
Only once I’ve got everything I can think of down in my random dump, do I read on in the texts to see what the pro’s say about the meaning of this sutra. Check out a few different translations. Read some commentaries. See what the Sanskrit literally means and what the different english interpretations of those words could mean.
At this point, it doesn’t matter at all if your initial thoughts sound anything or nothing like the commentary.
You’re not scoring yourself on a test.
Don't discount your scribbles, even if they’re miles away from the ‘proper’ meaning. They're more valuable than you think. What came up for you is still real and valid and it’s your brain making connections, even if they're weird ones.
step four // processing
This is my favourite part. Taking the insights from the texts I’ve read, and letting them mesh with all of the wild and wonderful thoughts I had in the first place.
I write essays (because I'm that kind of word nerd), but find whatever way works for you to process it all. Maybe you like to speak it all out loud with someone, or just in your own journalling voice notes. You might want to journal, draw, pull your partner into compulsory philosophy chats over tea - it doesn’t matter. Do whatever works for you.
What matters is that you're actually processing it all in some way, not just collecting it.
Although I like to contain this processing in some way within a defined window of time (writing, speaking, sharing) there’s also an element of it that needs to keep happening slowly in the days that follow. Look out for how that learning or message shows up in the most random moments of your life.
Sometimes this will be obvious - when the theme is letting go of control and suddenly your car breaks down en route to a full class 🫠 Other times it'll be more subtle, like catching yourself in old patterns but suddenly seeing them through this new lens.
The more you notice these connections and joining those dots, the more these texts will stop being something you learn superficially and quote in class, and become more about being lived and real and relevant in your own life.
step five // teaching
After some living and breathing of the new things you’ve learnt, you can think about how you might like to take it into your teaching.
This might feel kind of clunky at first.
You know how when you first started class planning, you felt quite wedded to the sequence you had beautifully planned out and written down? But then that evolves into you teaching being more about responding to what's actually happening in the room?
This works the same way.
You don’t need to memorise long dharma talks that you don’t know when to include. It's way more organic than that.
Because you've done all this work - the brain dumping, the studying, the processing, the living with it - you'll find these teachings start weaving themselves naturally into your classes and the things you say.
You might be watching someone struggle in a pose and suddenly that sutra about effort and ease feels relevant to mention. Or you could be guiding people through a transition and that teaching about change just...fits.
When you teach and share in this way, nothing is forced. You don’t need to panic about how you’re going to ‘tick the philosophy box’ this week in class.
Your deeper understanding of the sutra you’ve taken time to really get to know will show up in such a natural, and relevant way.
Sometimes it might be explicit - you might literally reference the sutra directly. Other times you might choose to theme a whole class or season around the workings of a particular sutra. But in many cases, it’ll be much more subtle than either of those - it will simply influences how you guide, cue, or hold space in your class.
An exercise I have loved doing here to help bridge that gap between understanding and teaching, is to spend a little bit of time writing down potential teaching ideas and themes that come up from your study.
Almost like creating a little library of inspiration that bridges the gap between what's in your head and how you might actually express it in a class you’re teaching.
Don’t think of this like creating scripts to memorise (which will 100% sound as awkward as it feels) but there's something really helpful about playing with the actual words you might use and getting familiar with how to share these ideas in your own voice.
Sometimes the distance between understanding something yourself and being able to explain it to others can feel huge - doing this as a dedicated exercise can help close that gap.
It’s a bit like class planning. When you’re a new teacher you have to think more about planning, sequencing, cueing etc…the more you do it, the more it becomes second nature.
For each sutra, you can jot down:
a general theme from that sutra that you might like to teach on
Specific things to actually DO in class (poses, transitions, exercises that might help bring that theme to life)
Things to say (actual phrases that feel natural coming out of your mouth - things in your head always sound different when you say them out loud).
To give you an idea, this is one of the ones I shared in the last round of Philosophy Club….
Sutra: 2.46 Sthira-sukham asanam
Theme:
Lingering in the journey
Things to do:
Have your students move incredibly slowly (like, increeeediiiiblyyyy sloooowwwwlyy between poses (like a solid 1-2 minute transition from down dog to uttanasana). They’ll panic a bit at first and rush through, but after a few rounds they’ll start to calibrate to how much time that actually is.Things to say:
- ‘Instead of thinking about transitions as the space between poses, treat them as their own practice - where can you find stability even as everything is shifting and moving?’-‘Notice how the mind wants to rush to get you to the next 'real' pose. Can you find as much steadiness and ease in this nowhere place as you do in the end posture?’
The more you learn and the deeper you get into this as a regular practice, the more natural it all becomes. It doesn’t take long for it to really change how you teach.
In the last 2 rounds of Philosophy Club, over 200 of you have explored one sutra a week for four weeks with me.
This ISN’T a space where I spout philosophy at you as an expert for four weeks, but if you want to make this kind of study a regular part of your practice and teaching, it does offer you the chance to be super supported in that with prompts, essays and tangible teaching cues and theme ideas from me!
You’ll just receive weekly content from me and be able to chat amongst yourselves and share insights and reflections within the comments. You’ll be working through the same sutras at the same time as the group, just in your own space and at your own pace.
The content will be yours to keep after the live round is over too, so there’s no rush to keep up.
We’ll be kicking off on Monday 3rd March and over 100 of you are already in! I cannot wait to get stuck back in.
Whether you join us or not, I hope this guide helps you find your own way into making the sutras or texts a bit more accessible, and helps you feel more confident in practicing and sharing more than just movement.
I’m asking around… what would be your recommendation for a female written yoga philosophy book? Thank you.🙏🏼
I like these ideas as tips for new yoga teachers to bring more philosophy in.