If you've ever seen a picture of a pretzel-y yoga pose and thought "that's not for me" — I want to talk to you specifically.

Maybe you're not flexible. Maybe you have cranky knees, a sore wrist, or a body that just doesn't bend that way. Perhaps you tried yoga once and spent the whole class feeling behind, confused, or just vaguely wrong in your body.

I get it. And I want to tell you about a different kind of yoga.

It's called Viniyoga. It comes directly from India and it's about as authentic as yoga gets — but it probably looks different from any yoga class you've seen on social media. My teacher is Gary Kraftsow, who studied in India beginning in the early 1970s with T. K. V. Desikachar (1938-2016), the son of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989). Krishnamacharya is known as 'The Father of Modern Yoga' - credited for reviving yoga in India and it's popularity in the West. Much of the yoga we have here in the West has Krishnamacharya's teachings at its foundation - but, depending on when a student studied with Krishnamacharya and his current evolution - various types of yoga emerged.

Here's the core idea: Viniyoga focuses on achieving the purpose of the pose, rather than requiring you to look a certain way.

Take a simple standing forward bend. If you have tight hamstrings, we ask you to bend your knees — until you feel the stretch where it actually matters, in your low back. We're not chasing a shape. We're after what the pose is actually trying to do for your body. We prioritize that low back stretch over stretching the hamstrings (which are usually what gets in the way).

We typically do one pose at a time - repetition and stay. There's no rushing to keep up, no flowing from one thing to the next before you've even landed. We move in and out of a pose a few times, feeling our way in and out of the pose, then we stay in it and really work it — focusing on the strengthening or stretching that pose is meant to offer. Then we come out, and we notice. How does your body feel? What shifted?

Everything moves with the breath. Every pose has a movement on the inhale, and another on the exhale. Body and breath, connected throughout.

And if a pose simply doesn't work in your body — bad knees, limited mobility, balance issues, a missing limb, anything — we find another way to achieve the same effect. There are always options. Always.

Viniyoga was actually designed to be taught individually, honoring each person's body and exactly where they're starting from. No prior experience required. No flexibility required. Just you, showing up as you are.

That's why I think it's especially for people who've decided yoga isn't for them.

If you're curious — about what this might feel like in your body, or whether it could actually work for you — I'd love to hear from you. Just reach out and we'll talk.