What are we really doing here?

// four flows to engage the outer hips and take you to eagle

Dear Humans,

What are we really doing here? This is a question that has been fascinating me over the past few months.

I’m a yoga teacher. What does that truly mean?

I’ve been on a journey this year to be able to answer that question, and to really understand the heart of the yoga practice.

(And if this post already feels overwhelming to you, don’t worry. I get that. I’m not here to judge you or shame you if you can’t answer those questions for yourself yet.

But if you’re like me, and you want to be able to confidently answer the question of what it means to teach “yoga” — in all it’s complexity—then I’m here to go on that ride with you. We’re learning. Side by side.)

You’ll remember that in this post I took us into Samkhya, the mother philosophy of yoga, and in this post I reminded us not to feel shame if we couldn’t yet answer these questions for ourselves in our yoga journey.

Today, I want us to dip our toes into Avidya, which is a concept that first shows up in the second section of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Avidya, as described in the yoga philosophy, is the root of our suffering and it can be simply translated to “ignorance” or “misperception.”

Below, I’ll give you a brief overview of my understanding of Avidya, similar to how I explained it to my yoga class. I hope this is a nice way to dip your toes into the concept and begin to learn more about it.

Then, I’m sharing a set of 3 sequences (mini-flow, main flow, cool down flow) for paid subscribers that I designed for a class where I was really trying to think about engagement in the outer hips. These standing flows are meant to encourage a squeezing action in the outer hips and glutes to support us in shapes like our lunges and chair pose—leading eventually to eagle pose.

I also want to share with you a very special warm-up sequence that was inspired by my new online friend

Nico

—a yoga teacher in Montana who is sharing some beautiful sequences online.

This crossing of worlds symbolizes something that I think is so true and important in the concept of Avidya—we aren’t just these individual entities moving through the world—we’re connected. We learn yoga from one another. We grow through our experiences with one another. We are inspired and we evolve through our interactions with one another.

What a beautiful thing, to remember that we can, actually, shed these egos that tell us we are separate, and let our worlds melt together instead.

Alright, let’s dig into philosophy and then get to asana.

In a fundamental way, yoga is seeking to answer the question: Why do we suffer and what can we do about it?

In the yoga philosophy, the root of our suffering comes from Avidya—which can be thought of as “ignorance” or “misunderstanding.” Avidya tells us that we suffer because we misperceive the world around us.

Avidya is the first of five Kleshas. The Kleshas are mental blocks or states of mind that cause suffering. Avidya is the bedrock of the Kelshas. It is the field from which all the other Kleshas emerge.

I love this translation from Swami Satchidananda of Sutra 2.5 explaining Avidya: We suffer because we think “the impermanent is permanent, the impure is pure, the painful is pleasant and non-self is the self.”

In other words, as humans we tend to hold tightly to things in life, imagining them to be steadfast, but we forget that the truth of life is change. Nothing is permanent. Everything is always moving and flowing.

We suffer because we think that certain energies or inputs in our life are pure and positive because perhaps they are pleasurable, or they feel good in the moment, but they ultimately harm us. We feed the body and the mind with “pleasures” but spend too little time feeding the spirit.

We suffer because we hold tightly to our egos and our sense of self as an individual. We move through this world taking action out of self-interest. We forget that we are all deeply connected.

Our yoga practice, then, is an effort in removing the mental blocks that arise from Avidya. Yoga is a practice of transforming our misperception into sight. A journey of seeing what truly is. Of tapping into the higher “self.”

There are many ways to do this, and they are outlined in the limbs of yoga.

So, this is what we’re teaching. Among many things.

How to perceive the world around us. How to nourish the spirit. How to act from a place of collective compassion, rather than self interest. How to simply be.

I hope you enjoy this topic and these sequences. I hope you keep expanding your sense of what it means to teach yoga and carry this torch forward. I hope, most of all, that you’re well.

How are you, my friends? How have you seen worlds colliding or expanding lately? Talk to me in the comments!

Sending love,

Izzy

Izzy Martens

author, yoga teacher, sequence enthusiast

www.yogahumans.com

What I Taught in Yoga This Week | March 12, 2025

This week I’m sharing a warm-up flow which starts from the knees and takes you on a circle of the mat. An important note about teaching this flow is to be really clear on how you’re tracking which side you’re “leading” with. This is one of those flows where you can’t just have the right leg leading and go from there, because the legs switch. So my advice is to start by understanding which arm is leading the movement in the first two movements: Eagle (right arm sweeps under) and then open arm twist (right arm sweeps back), then from there just allow the flow to unfold. I hope that makes sense. Definitely experiment with this, because it could catch you off guard while teaching!

the write-up:

• table top

• cow pose

• kneeling pose, arms overhead

• eagle arms

• inhale, lift heart

• exhale, coil down

• inhale lift and unravel arms

• open arm twist

• sunbird

  • reach front hand to table and sweep back arm forward

• tiger curl

• yogi push up

• gate legs

• drop hips back to heels

• odd dog

  • *this is one of the poses I hadn’t seen before Nico’s videos! It’s great. Keep your feet in that gate shape and lift the hips, the hips will naturally sway a little to the side, that’s okay, let them.

• press into the foot on the mat, three legged dog

• low crescent lunge

• open arm twist x2

• plant hands

• gate reach

• half crunches, elbow behind head

• full gate pose

• cartwheel hands to the back of the mat

• tiger curl, with back knee lifted

• three legged dog

• bring knees back to table top and repeat flow on the other side!

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Three more sequences for you that you can use to design a full yoga class. A mini-flow, main flow, and an active cool down flow which leads to our peak posture. Enjoy!