Align with Jessica

09/19/2025

Moon and Venus conjunction captured early this morning over Stonehenge. 🌙 🌟

09/19/2025

Classes to resume next week. Thank you for your patience and support - https://mailchi.mp/alignwithjessica/daily-yoga-feel-freedom-18236186

09/14/2025

Public and Private classes for next week cancelled, Sept 15th-19th due to family emergency. Thank you for understanding.

09/11/2025

🪾🧘‍♀️😆

09/09/2025

The Hidden Side of Yoga
Did you know your yoga “blind spots” could be holding you back?
A blind spot = the part of your body you neglect because another part screams louder (like focusing only on your sore back, while ignoring the hip imbalance causing it).

👉 What happens when we address these hidden imbalances?
💡 Magic unfolds:
✅ Pain transforms into awareness
✅ Both sides of the body learn to work equally
✅ Compensations (and future injuries) are prevented
✅ You feel lighter, grounded, and more whole

Yoga goes deeper than form.
Every adjustment, every mindful action brings you closer to harmony—inside and out. 🌿

✨ Next time you step on the mat, ask yourself:
“Am I practicing evenly… or letting blind spots lead the way?”

🌍 https://www.bksiyengaryogashala.com/

09/06/2025

🕉️ Restorative Iyengar, pranayama and the Yoga Sūtras

Sūtra II.46 — sthira sukham āsanam

“Āsana is a posture that is steady and easeful.”
Props in restorative yoga make this sūtra tangible. The body is supported so it can be both steady and at ease. In Supta Baddha Koṇāsana or Viparīta Karaṇī, we are held in alignment without strain.

When we use it: During menstruation, times of fatigue, or when the body needs nurturing steadiness without demand.

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Sūtra II.48 — tato dvaṅdva-anabhighātaḥ

“Through mastery of posture, one is undisturbed by the dualities.”

Restorative inversions like supported Setu Bandha teach us to remain calm even in reversed conditions. The support dissolves the struggle, and we rest beyond opposites — effort/release, heaviness/lightness.

When we use it: In times of stress, overstimulation, or emotional turbulence — when we long for balance and equanimity.

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Sūtra II.49 — tasmin sati śvāsa-praśvāsayor gati-vicchedaḥ prāṇāyāmaḥ

“When posture is mastered, regulation of the incoming and outgoing breath follows.”
Restorative āsana creates space for the breath to lengthen and even out naturally. Supported chest openers and gentle inversions encourage diaphragmatic release and deeper, calmer breathing.

When we use it: When feeling run down, anxious, or disconnected from the breath. It is also ideal before or after travel, or in cycles of regular practice when deeper prāṇāyāma is being cultivated.

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Sūtra II.52 — tataḥ kṣīyate prakāśa-āvaraṇam

“Then the veil covering the inner light is destroyed.”

The quieting of the nervous system in restorative practice clears away the coverings of fatigue, agitation, and stress. Students often leave class with a sense of clarity and lightness.

When we use it: After long workdays, periods of burnout, or whenever the mind feels dull or overwhelmed. And as part of the rhythm of a full practice cycle — alternating active work with restorative days, especially at the end of the week, during the me**es or at seasonal transitions.

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✨ Why We Do It

Restorative Iyengar yoga is a medicine chest for modern life:
• For menstruation and cyclic hormonal fluctutions: a cooling, soothing, and nourishing the body.
• For fatigue and burnout: replenishes depleted energy without exertion.
• For stress and anxiety: calms the nervous system and steadies the mind.
• For ongoing practice cycles: balances strong āsana with deep rest, ensuring sustainable progress.
• For preparation for pranayama

It is not simply relaxation. It is yoga as Patañjali described: steadiness with ease, breath leading to clarity, freedom from opposites, and the gradual dissolving of impurities so that the inner light shines through.

09/06/2025

09/05/2025

How has it felt offering Build Your Practise Iyengar Yoga mini immersives this week? See my face 🙂 a heart full of gratitude for the depth of this practise and a wonderful cohort of committed students who truly opened themselves to the path of yoga and towards each other, in community. 💚 #

09/04/2025

Join our regular Alignment Yoga,
Iyengar yoga classes starting Sept 08th.

All Levels. Beginners welcome. Or deepen your sense of yoga through an alignment based, foundational practise rooted in the spiritual teachings at the core of a holistic yogic path.

Purchase an 8 class flex pass for access to all Align with Jessica Iyengar Yoga public classes at the Saltair Community Centre gym. 💚

https://alignwithjessica.punchpass.com/passes/178511?check=1688692552
- https://mailchi.mp/alignwithjessica/daily-yoga-feel-freedom-18235849

09/04/2025

Exactly what I was speaking to today in our Mini Immersive Build Your Practise at the Saltair Community Centre as we dove into abdominal, backbend and inversion categories and felt the linking actions that support and open us towards the benefits of the poses.

So grateful for the opportunity to create and offer this 4 day experience.

And I love this inquiry, 'Have you ever had that “aha moment” when two poses suddenly connect? Share it below'

alignwithjessica.com

Most yogis think asanas are categorized by shape.

But Iyengar Yoga teaches something deeper:
👉 They’re grouped by action, not appearance.
👉 A twist can also open the chest.
👉 A backbend can ground the legs.
👉 Every pose is interconnected.

At first, practice looks like “levels” and techniques. But over time, you see the art: asanas blending, sequencing shifting, nothing isolated.

✨ Yoga stops being rules. It becomes art.

Have you ever had that “aha moment” when two poses suddenly connect? Share it below



🌍 https://www.bksiyengaryogashala.com/

09/04/2025

A peek into Build Your Practise Mini Immersion at the Saltair Community Centre. Pose category focus for the day: Abdominals and Inversions ( *** some adaptations for neck, shoulder conditions not shown here).

Sutra focus: In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the phrase "practice and let go" refers to the concepts of abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (non-attachment or letting go).

Sutra 1.12: "abhyasa-vairabhyam tan nirodhah". This means achieving mastery or stillness of the mind (citta vritti nirodhah) through persistent, dedicated practice and non-attachment to outcomes, desires, and external things. It is a balanced approach where consistent effort is paired with the wisdom to release what is unnecessary or hindering your growth, fostering inner peace and freedom.

We will embody commitment to practise and the felt embodiment of letting go the fruits, results, aspirations of that practise.

Inquiry: What does it feel like to full commit to the practise, pose and let go any feeling of success, failure in the moments after? What does this neutral space of letting go make space for? What does it feel like to be here? How does this experience relate to yoga for you?

alignwithjessica.com