A Story of Yoga

Yoga has a long and rich history. On this page, I share a few glimpses of that story, its enduring wisdom, and how it continues to resonate in our lives today. I also touch briefly on Hatha Yoga, the foundation of my own teaching.

A living thread that connects us

The most striking aspect of yoga for me is its longevity alongside its continuing relevance today. With written origins tracing back around 3500 years, yoga as a system of philosophy and practice has literally evolved over thousands of years.

The history of yoga is impossible (at least for me!) to summarise succinctly. 

By sharing a few snippets here, I hope you’ll sense how your practice is connected to a much longer human story. When we step onto the mat today, we join one of humanity’s oldest explorations of body, mind, and spirit – seeking ways to live, and be, with awareness and ease.

Tracing roots

Contemporary research generally locates yoga’s origins in northern India in the early second millennium BCE, and some claim to trace evidence even further back. With scant remains, it is impossible to be sure. However, it is likely that the earliest written texts drew on much older oral teachings, passed from sage to student through memorisation long before formal writing systems emerged.

With inevitable losses and damage to originals over millennia, texts have been reconstructed many times. Additionally what we may see as classic historic scripts are in fact reinterpretations, inevitably reflecting the various societal and philosophical beliefs, cultural contexts and knowledge holding sway in their time. As a result, recognised important texts differ in how they understand the purpose of yoga. This is evident, for example, in their metaphysical framing: some present yoga as a path to unite the individual self and the universal, while in another it is to discern or access the eternal consciousness distinct from the individual self.

The world, the universe and me

While yoga is not a religion, it shares a focus on the relationship between the individual self, the world and the universe. Indeed the first written reference to yoga appeared around 1500BCE in the Rg Veda – the earliest Hindu scripture[1] with further references and allusions in subsequent Vedas up to around 900BCE. 

Moving forward, the classic Upanishad texts written between 700BCE and 200CE reference yoga more directly in their explorations of the nature of ultimate reality (brahman), our connection with the universe and spiritual transformation[2], sometimes through practical meditational methods. 

Sometime between 100BCE and 200CE the classic Hindu saga of the Bhagavad Gita explores yoga more in terms of duty (dharma), responsibilities and moral choices for living in this world.

Embodied practice and the mind

It’s important to appreciate that these early texts contained little or no reference to methods or practices that we commonly associate with yoga today. However, some of the earliest references to yoga techniques came from the Buddha around 500BCE, as he formed his teachings on impermanence, meditation and the path to enlightenment [3].

From Buddha’s era onward, texts began to emphasise practices and methods for self-understanding, exploring the nature of reality, and seeking enlightenment through direct experience and inner inquiry. Yoga’s contemporary language of ‘embodied understanding’ perhaps comes close to this perspective.

In more recent times around 400CE, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras provides arguably the first comprehensive secular (non theistic) system of guidance. Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga provides a step-by-step guide for skilful living and liberation from suffering by reflecting on the true nature of reality, controlling the senses, the mind, and refining awareness through meditation.

These themes resonate powerfully today as we grapple with the contradictions and challenges of life in modern society. Patanjali would likely be surprised by modern yoga’s emphasis on movement, postures and styles. The Yoga Sutras place much more emphasis on ethical, moral and mental practice. Its sparse physical postural instruction is merely to prepare the body to sit in stillness (‘steady and at ease’ – Sthira and Sukha), to free the body from pain and to enable the ‘settling of the mind into silence’. Likewise breathing exercises are proposed in service not to the body, but to developing ‘a steady mind’[4].

Diversity of yoga today

People are drawn to yoga for many reasons, reflecting the wide diversity of contemporary cultures, interests, and individual starting points. Increasingly, yoga is practiced for health and is sometimes even prescribed by doctors as part of integrated physical and mental wellness treatment pathways. Happily, we no longer need to shun comforts or retreat to a monastery to become a yogi – even brief, regular practice can work its quiet magic into your everyday life.

There are many yoga class styles on offer on the high street and on-line today – Ashtanga, Iyengar, Kundalini Yoga, Yoga Vinyasa, Yoga Flow, Yoga Nidra, Hot Yoga and more. This diversity can be confusing, so it may help to know that most of them trace back to Hatha Yoga, codified in its early recognisable form 500 - 600 years ago. 

A bit more on Hatha Yoga

Hatha relates to ‘effort’, ‘yoke’ or ‘union’, and one of its classic texts is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika written in the 15th Century CE. This may be the first of the classic texts that is instantly recognisable today as a yoga manual – perhaps the foundation for many modern yoga systems and practices.

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika explains Hatha as a system for integrating body postures or asana and mudra, breathing or pranayama, and meditation exercises for attaining samadhi – a blissful state of unity, when the prana (energy) decreases and the mind dissolves[5]. 

In a stepped approach, postural practice (asana) is set as ‘the first step of Hatha’, to build ‘steadiness, health and lightness’, followed by instructions for breathwork (pranayama) and associated exercises, then meditative practice.

Most, if not all, modern yoga styles and teaching (including my own) are rooted in Hatha Yoga practice as a pathway steering us inward away from our outward-focused senses toward inner awareness, deeper stillness and self-understanding. The different schools and styles vary more in their combination and emphases placed on the different elements (or steps) of the Practice than in fundamentals. For example, Kundalini classes may emphasise practices to unblock and release inner energies; Iyengar Yoga may focus more on postural alignment and purity; Ashtanga on strength-building, while Yin focuses more on the therapeutic power of deep rest. 

Yoga today is a rich mix of movement, balance, breathwork and meditation practices. Underlying these variations however, lies the universal theme of embodied practice through self-inquiry. Within this theme lies the challenging invitation for patient persistence – the ‘effort’ and ‘yoke’ aspect embedded in the word Hatha. 

In its thoroughly modern message, the Pradipika exhorts students to practice: The practitioner will succeed; the nonpractitioner will not. Success in Yoga is not achieved by merely reading books.’  This surely applies to anyone journeying along the Yoga path today.

My yoga style and the world today

My own teaching draws directly on traditional Hatha yoga and is inspired by Vanda Scaravelli’s 20th century focus on Awakening the Spine [6]. I aim for a gentle integrated flow of breath, movement and meditative practice, to progressively develop physical strength and suppleness, find balance between outer and inner awareness, and ultimately, move into stillness.

In my experience, Yoga is a powerful antidote to the stresses of modern life. This feels even more relevant today as we juggle busy schedules, multiple priorities and expectations. In a digital age, our nervous systems are continuously primed for rapid reactivity. At the same time we absorb – even if subconsciously – stresses from wider conflicts and challenges that face humanity. All this can often leave us feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. 

Amidst these demands, practising yoga releases tension, steadies the mind, and helps us stay grounded. While yoga may not change the world, it can transform how we experience and move through it – how we think, respond, and show up each day, each moment. 

Journeying with yoga is an ongoing exploration of body, mind, and spirit that helps us live with more awareness and ease in the world as it is today. 

My general classes are suited to people with limited time who want to benefit from building some regular Breathing Space yoga into their daily lives. My workshops and retreats offer more time for deepening practice and exploring more of the gifts yoga can bring.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

- Excerpt from The Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot (1941)

In conclusion 

This is of course simply one way of trying to connect and convey a vast history. I hope it's been helpful. I have added some references below in case you'd like to dig deeper.