Yoga Nature Sheffield

17/11/2025

The Movement Analysis Series

Have you ever wondered what makes yoga different from other forms of movement, and even from yoga as movement itself?

When does yoga stop being yoga?

All forms of movement have value. But what we’re really practicing - is it yoga, or is it something else? From physiotherapy and Pilates to ballet, gym training, and the many twentieth-century offshoots of yoga such as aerial, acro, and fitness yoga - what truly defines the difference lies in intention and attention.

Curious? To help explore this question, we’ve written a three-part series of essays:

“When Yoga Stops Being Yoga – Through the Lens of Ta**ra”
In this piece, we explore what yoga actually is through the lens of Ta**ra - the philosophical foundation beneath most modern yoga traditions.

“What Makes a Yoga Posture Different? A Critical Examination for Practitioners, Teachers, and Curious Bodies” Building on the first essay, this piece takes a deeper look at how various movement systems compare with the Tantrik understanding of yoga, and what distinguishes a yoga posture from any other kind of movement.

“Two Pathways of Awareness: The Difference Between Yoga and Pilates – Movement, Meaning, and the Many Ways We Come Home to Ourselves” Finally, we turn to Pilates - exploring how it differs from yoga, where the two intersect, and how both invite us back into embodied awareness.

These essays will be made available on our Substack in the coming days. The first one is free access for all and can be found here:

https://substack.com/home/post/p-178805778

03/11/2025

01/11/2025

Every breath, every pulse, holds memory. In 'The Body Remembers,' we explore how yoga, through saṃskāras and spanda, connects us to ancestral traces, epigenetic histories, polyvagal theory and the living rhythm of the body.

Read the article on Substack:

whatonyogaearth.substack.com/p/the-body-remembers

31/10/2025

A new post on our Substack just in time for Samhain 🎃

As autumn wanes and the light begins to fail, the world itself seems to hover in a state of suspension, neither fully alive nor fully dead. In the Celtic world this interval is called Samhain, the time when the boundaries between realms grow thin, when ancestors draw near, and when darkness begins its reign. The Tantrik imagination is intimately familiar with the same terrain: the threshold, the sandhyā, the liminal space where one world gives way to another.

In classical Śaiva and Śākta Ta**ra, the practitioner is drawn again and again to such edges, to the twilight hours, to the cremation ground, to the borders of the village, to the very threshold of the temple or the body. These sandhyā-sthānas, the “twilight places,” are not avoided but sought, for they are charged with a volatile power. The Tantrika’s task is to stand where opposites meet: purity and impurity, sacred and profane, eros and death. At the seam between them, consciousness awakens to its full, undivided nature.

Read more at https://whatonyogaearth.substack.com/p/at-the-threshold

**ra

27/10/2025

Some great skies and light today on our walk from Longshaw, via Burbage Edge, to the Ox stones and Ringinglow. Oh, and a rainbow 🌈

27/10/2025

Appreciation and gratitude, celebrating 21 years of this wonderful community.

23/10/2025

✨ What on Yoga Earth is now on Substack ✨

We’ve moved! 🌍 Our deep dives into the roots, myths, and philosophies of Yoga now live on Substack. A space made for longform storytelling, thoughtful reflection, and community conversation.

On Substack, you can:

-Read essays free from the noise of social media.
-Subscribe to receive each new piece directly in your inbox.
-Join a community of readers who care about truth, history, and practice.

What on Yoga Earth explores yoga beyond the trends, delving into ancient texts, hidden histories, and forgotten voices to understand why we practice, not just how.

It’s about remembering the essence beneath the noise and unlearning the misinformation that’s crept into modern yoga culture.

If you’ve ever wondered where yoga really came from, what its philosophies actually say, or how these teachings can be lived today — this is for you.

👉 Join us on Substack: https://whatonyogaearth.substack.com/

Follow, subscribe, and be part of a grounded, intelligent, heart-led yoga community.

To pique your curiosity here are a few essays we have shared:

Yoga Isn’t 5,000 Years Old: And That’s Beautiful - Tracing a Living Tradition Through Change, Continuity, and Cultural Forgetting

Is Yoga Alliance Diluting the Practice? - A Respectful Critique of the 200-Hour Teacher Training Model

Fractals, Fungi, and Flow: Practising Yoga with the Pattern of Life

The Body Is Not the Enemy: Classical Yoga vs. Śaiva Ta**ra - On Dualism, the Feminine, and the Sacredness of Being

Cultural Appropriation & Yoga: Untangling the Knots, A Complex Conversation

Cakras: The version you know isn’t the original

A Brief History of Yoga

And much more...

22/10/2025

Our latest article, on our new Substack.

One of the most persistent myths in modern yoga circles is that yoga is 5,000 years old. You’ve heard it. Maybe even said it. You’ll see it on websites, in teacher trainings, and in glossy magazine articles. It sounds impressive, ancient, mystical, unbroken. But when we look closer, this neat timeline unravels, it isn’t true.

The claim comes from a single archaeological seal, repeated so often it became canon. But yoga, as a structured spiritual system, is not 5,000 years old. It’s closer to 2,000. And the yoga most of us practice today? Not even 150.

What really puts the claim to bed is this: the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2600–1900 BCE) and the later Indo-Aryan culture were two completely different civilizations. The Indus people had their own cities, symbols, and language, none of which can yet be read. The Aryans arrived much later, bringing their own language, rituals, and eventually the Vedas, which seeded what we recognize as early yogic thought.

And here’s the key point: there is a gap of several centuries between the decline of the Indus Valley (around 1900 BCE) and the rise of Vedic culture (c. 1500 BCE). That’s not cultural continuity, it’s a civilizational break.

To honour yoga, we need to honour truth, not myth.

Read more at https://whatonyogaearth.substack.com/p/yoga-isnt-5000-years-old-and-thats

14/10/2025

And so our year-long exploration of Āyurvedic wisdom has begun!

If you join our classes now you will explore with us the following:

- Is it correct to call Yoga and Āyurveda 'sister sciences'?

- How can Āyurveda complement our yoga practice?

- What are the doṣas and how can we adapt our yoga practice to suit our dominant doṣa(s) at any given time?

- Learn simple daily routines that complement the season and your unique self.

07/10/2025

Our latest blog post:

whatonyogaearth.tumblr.com/post/796743141102321664/is-yoga-alliance-diluting-the-practice 

This post isn’t anti-YA. It’s pro-yoga.
Pro-transparency.
Pro-integrity.
And most of all: pro-practice.

It's a call.

A call to remember yoga as a state, not a status.
A path, not a performance.
A lineage, not a lifestyle brand.

May we protect what is sacred.
May we listen deeper than branding.
May we walk the path, not just teach it.

Let’s walk it with integrity.
Let’s make space for depth again.
Let’s serve yoga, so yoga can serve the world.









 

 



 



 

 

 

04/10/2025

Videos from yesterday's autumnal walk.

The oak unravels slowly,
spirals of time in every limb.
Leaves loosen their hold,
a quiet surrender,
a golden hymn.

Moss drinks the hush of rain,
stones remember what was green.
Mushrooms rise, soft lanterns
in the fading scene.

Everything yields,
and in that falling grace,
the forest breathes again
into its own still space.

01/10/2025

A poignant piece in a time of ecological grief, societal disintegration, exploitation of resources and oppression of people and Earth. Read on to find out how Kali is a medicine for these times...

She comes clothed in dark.
Not to destroy life,
but to end the lie it was built upon.
To slice through illusion.
To make space for truth.

Kālī is not here to comfort.
She is not a goddess to pray to for sweetness or ease.
She is the force that interrupts what has gone too far.
The wisdom of endings.
The intelligence of collapse.

She is a myth, yes. But more than that, she is a mirror.

In a time of ecological unravelling, societal disintegration, and spiritual forgetting, Kālī is not a symbol of fear.
She is a response.

Read the full article on our blog: whatonyogaearth.tumblr.com/post/795935086502690816/kālī-endings-that-set-us-free