I recently embarked in a beautiful journey to become a Yoga teacher, after 20 years practicing and 5 years guiding meditation to people I simply adore! This journey has taught me so much, but the top three reflections coming up about Yoga itself, are the following:

🕉️ Yoga isn’t new. It’s eternal.

Long before yoga was “poses on a mat”, it was a path to inner peace and purpose. 🌿In the Bhagavad Gita, the battlefield is the mind. In Patanjali’s sutras, the real journey is inward.

In a world that moves fast, demands more, and distracts us constantly—ancient yoga invites us to slow down, go inward, and remember who we are.

Yoga isn’t just about postures. It’s a way of life—a science of the soul that has guided seekers for thousands of years. Long before it became trendy in studios and social media, yoga was a sacred path to inner freedom, emotional balance, and union with the Divine.

Texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are not outdated philosophies—they are spiritual manuals for the chaos of modern living.

For example, 🕊 In the Gita, Arjuna’s battlefield is a metaphor for the battles we face every day: anxiety, indecision, fear, and self-doubt. His guide, Krishna, reminds him—and us—that peace comes from within, not from control, comparison, or outcome. 🧘‍♀️ Patanjali maps out a step-by-step path through the Eight Limbs of Yoga, showing us how to live ethically, breathe consciously, move with awareness, and meditate to connect to the truth beyond the mind.

✨ These teachings speak of discipline, surrender, stillness, devotion, and self-inquiry—practices we need more than ever in a time of overstimulation, burnout, and disconnection.

The more ancient the wisdom, the more relevant it becomes. Because truth doesn’t expire—it only becomes clearer when everything else gets loud.

Let us always remember that yoga isn’t about touching your toes. It’s about touching your soul. It teaches us to:
💫 Breathe consciously
💫 Act with purpose
💫 Detach from outcomes
💫 Live from the soul, not the ego

In other words, it helps us stay present. 🌱Because true yoga begins where distraction ends. And, no matter how modern the kinds of Yoga classes out there, Yoga is not new. It is eternal.

Yoga is not a workout is a work-in

Twenty years practicing Yoga have taught me this: Yoga isn’t a workout. It’s a work-in.

When I first stepped into a class, sure—I was excited to stretch, breathe deeper, maybe even master a cool pose or two. But what I didn’t expect was that the deepest stretch would be in my mind, not my hamstrings.

We show up on the mat thinking we’re going to get flexible bodies… and then Yoga smiles and says, “Oh no, honey—we’re going to make your heart more open, your thoughts less reactive, and your ego way less loud.”

The truth? Every time I move into a pose that feels uncomfortable, it’s not just my muscles saying “whoa.” It’s old stories, fears, control, impatience… all being gently (or sometimes not so gently) invited to stretch, expand, let go.

That’s why I say yoga is a work-in. We go inward. We breathe into resistance. We meet ourselves exactly where we are and we become very gentle when not judging that place where we actually are.

And somehow, the physical shapes become just the surface… like the mat is just a mirror, reflecting all the places inside of us that are asking for attention.

So recently I started this journey of Yoga teacher. As part of this course, I’m learning to guide people through poses… but more than that, I’m learning how to hold space for their inner landscapes. To help us all go from scattered to centered. To calm the waters, so the truth beneath can rise.

💛🧘‍♀️

The meaning of Now for Yogis

This week, I was given my very first homework in my journey as a yoga teacher (yep, that’s happening !! )—and the question was so simple, yet it cracked my brain open: What is the meaning of now?

At first, my practical mind wanted to conceptualize it. Time, breath, mindfulness, presence… But then I paused—I really paused—and let the question sink into my soul. And what came up was this metaphor that I’ve always cherished and carried deep inside, which brings me back to the times I was a little girl and I loved seeing my feet in the deep end of the ocean waters:

I have always believed that when the water is still, we can finally see far into the deepest waters.

For me, yoga is the art of calming the waves—not erasing them, not avoiding them—but softening the splash, slowing the ripples, and allowing clarity to surface.

I’m learning the ancient Yoga Sutras, which speak of yoga as “chitta vritti nirodhah”—the quieting of the fluctuations of the mind. And the real challenge now isn’t just understanding that… it’s becoming that. Living it. Embodying it. Teaching it.

I want to guide people not just through poses to stretch their bodies, but toward stillness to stretch the distance that they can see in the deepest sides of their lives. I want to bring them towards a quiet place where they can see and feel themselves again.

This is just the beginning of the path, and I don’t know where it will lead—but I was asked to reflect on this question, and a deep knowing came through for me: I want to help keep your waters as calm and undisturbed as possible so you can see as deep as possible.

And to me, that is the meaning of pausing, and the power of now.

Jocy Medina