What You See

The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see.

- Alexandra Trenfor

Years ago, a student approached me at the end of class to thank me for a suggestion I’d given her months earlier - one that had significantly improved her Side Plank pose.

“I don’t remember what you said.” she told me, “But I remember how it felt, and the difference it made.” She described how my guidance had enabled her to practice the pose without the shoulder pain that had plagued her for years.

Her words delighted me because they captured something essential about learning in yoga, and yogic knowledge itself.

Unlike academic subjects, yogic knowledge - jnana in Sanskrit – isn’t only about intellectual comprehension. It’s experiential, not just what we understand with our minds, but what we come to know through our lived experience.

This reflects a deeper truth: cognition isn't only a function of our brains. We hold an embodied wisdom that’s essential to yoga’s transformative potential.

As both teacher and student, I’ve discovered that the most impactful yoga instruction doesn't dictate what to feel or believe. Instead, it creates space to attune to our inner experience and trust it as a source of knowledge. We are invited to experiment – to take what resonates and leave what doesn’t.

Through this process, we internalize learning in our own unique ways, integrating what we “know” into our embodied experience.

This way of learning takes time and commitment. Intellectual understanding can happen quickly - we scroll past an inspiring quote and think, “Yes, I get it.” But embodied wisdom unfolds gradually, with far more lasting impact.  

Deepening your practice isn't about gathering more information—it's about embodying what you learn. emerges when a subtle adjustment finally relieves that nagging shoulder pain, or when a teaching you've heard countless times suddenly clicks during a difficult moment in daily life.

In an era when self-trust is perhaps our most precious resource, this capacity to make yogic knowledge our own has never been more worthwhile.

Next time you're in a pose or contemplating a teaching, notice what you actually feel rather than what you think you should feel. Trust that your inner wisdom will show you exactly what you need to see.