10/31/2025
🙏 Why I Don’t Offer Hands-On Assists, and Why Yoga Is So Much More Than a Physical Practice
This Wednesday, I was teaching yoga at a substance use recovery facility. 🧘♀️
A resident was in a pose to address his sciatica, when another resident kindly offered to assist him. It was a tender moment I watched as I demonstrated the pose myself, but it caused me to reflect on the reason why I, as a yoga teacher, choose not to offer hands-on assists to students. 💭
There are many reasons that I choose not to touch or “correct” my students in class, and why I stay on my mat rather than walking through the aisles of mats — all of which are rooted in the yogic philosophies and the science of psychology.
✨ First, all of our bodies are different, which means our asana practices look different. When you force a body into a shape, you can cause harm, regardless of how well-intended you are.
Yoga is not about fitting into a pose — it is about nurturing your awareness.
You are not your body, you are not your mind, you are your Atma. 🌿
I hold two doctorates — one in Ayur-Yoga and one in Clinical Psychology. Aside from teaching yoga, I teach psychology at the college level.
A concept I lecture on is the Absolute Threshold, which states that:
“The minimum intensity of a stimulus that an individual can detect at least 50% of the time under ideal conditions.”
This psychological concept tells us that the sensitivity and perception of our students are as unique as their physical appearance. What feels nurturing to one student may feel intrusive or unsafe to another in the same class. 🧠
In yoga, we honor the Koshas, or subtle layers of a person:
1️⃣ Annamaya Kosha (physical body)
2️⃣ Pranamaya Kosha (energy body)
3️⃣ Manomaya Kosha (mental/emotional body)
4️⃣ Vijnanamaya Kosha (wisdom body)
5️⃣ Anandamaya Kosha (bliss body)
As we touch others, we enter their energetic fields. ✋
This spiritual understanding is a foundational principle of proper yoga instruction.
Many of my students are people in recovery, domestic violence survivors, or those recently released from incarceration. For these students — and many others — physical touch is not appropriate.
Like my mother before me (also a yoga teacher), I instruct through vocal cues, awareness, and energy.
I allow the class to guide the practice, noticing their energy levels and needs. The goal is to help students turn inward, rather than rely on their teacher for correction. 🌸
🧘♂️ Yoga Is Not the Physical Practice
In the U.S., yoga is a product — and it is sold as asana, the physical postures. This inaccurate and limited view bypasses the purpose of yoga, which is a spiritual science of self-realization.
Within Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, yoga is taught as eight limbs — Ashtanga Yoga, which literally means “eightfold path,” not the style of “power vinyasa.”
The limbs move from the outer practice to the inner one, beginning long before the physical postures, in one’s ethical way of living in the world. 🌏
1️⃣ Yama – ethical foundations
2️⃣ Niyama – inner observances
3️⃣ Asana – steady posture
4️⃣ Pranayama – expansion of life energy through breath
5️⃣ Pratyahara – withdrawal of the senses
6️⃣ Dharana – focused concentration
7️⃣ Dhyana – meditation
8️⃣ Samadhi – realization, union with the Divine
The outer limbs prepare one for the inner limbs, where yoga becomes a way of being — not a method of exercise or relaxation.
Yoga was never meant to be about physical performance or flexibility.
It is the process of turning inward toward truth, humility, stillness, and connection to consciousness. 🕊️
🌿 A Spiritual, Not Commercial, Path
Like many teachers, I am very particular about who I practice under. Because I practice yoga as a spiritual lineage and not a profession, my practice must be guided by those who can scaffold my learning.
I study under traditional teachers in India and Nepal, where yoga is understood as a sacred discipline.
Yoga has transformed my life and is a path of liberation (moksha).
It is not a product I am selling or a way to perfect my body.
When yoga is lived, it teaches.
When it is sold, it loses its soul. 💫
🕉️
Dr. Jill Satnam, Ph.D. (Ayur-Yoga), Psy.D. ( Psychology), RYT-500
Wood & Water Yoga
