Wood & Water Yoga

10/29/2025

Join us for FREE, or donate to the Somerset Humane Society. See you Monday morning!

Start your Monday off right! Join Jill of Wood & Water Yoga on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9-10AM at the Old Point Avenue School on 108 Old Point Ave, Madison.

Classes are free with a highly encouraged donation that would benefit the Somerset Humane Society.

10/27/2025

🧘‍♀️ Wood & Water Yoga – November 2025 Schedule 🌿

As the seasons shift, we continue our commitment to keeping yoga accessible, authentic, and connected to the community. All classes are FREE and open to everyone

☀️ Mondays & Wednesdays – Madison Yoga
📍 108 Old Point Ave, Madison, ME
🕘 9:00 – 10:00 AM
Gentle, accessible yoga for all — connect to breath, body, and awareness.

✨ Wednesdays – River View Yoga Shala (Skowhegan)
📅 November 5 & 19
🕒 Time: 5pm
🪷 Free community yoga with Skowhegan Outdoors — all levels welcome!

🌿 Please bring a mat if possible and dress comfortably.

Classes are led by Dr. Jill Satnam, Ph.D. (Ayur-Yoga), Psy.D. (Psychology)

Together, we honor yoga’s roots through karma yoga — selfless service, community connection, and a return to the essence of the practice.

🕉️ Yoga is not a product — it’s a path to presence.

10/22/2025

🌿 What It Means to Teach Yoga 🌿

To teach yoga is not to lead poses.
It is to live yoga — every breath, every word, every choice.

A teacher of yoga must first be a student of life.
As the Yoga Sutras remind us, “Practice becomes firmly grounded when done for a long time, without interruption, and with devotion.” (YS I.14)
Yoga must be experienced — not memorized, marketed, or mimicked.

Teaching yoga is not a performance, not a career, and not a competition. It is an act of seva (service) — sharing the inner light of awareness, not selling it.

To live yoga means walking with the Yamas and Niyamas:
✨ Ahimsa — gentleness in thought and action
✨ Satya — honesty with self and others
✨ Aparigraha — letting go of greed and control
✨ Santosha — contentment with what is
✨ Ishvara Pranidhana — surrendering to the Divine flow

When yoga is lived, it naturally teaches through presence.
When it’s commodified, it loses its soul.

May every teacher — and every student — remember that yoga begins long before the mat, and continues long after.

10/18/2025

🌟🪔 Happy Diwali from Wood & Water Yoga! 🪔🌟

As we approach the Festival of Lights, we’re reminded that the outer light we see in lamps and candles reflects the inner light of awareness within each of us. Diwali invites us to clear away darkness — both in our homes and our hearts — and to make space for joy, clarity, and renewal.

In yoga, this is the same journey:
✨ Lighting the inner lamp through awareness and breath.
✨ Releasing what no longer serves, just as we clean and prepare our homes before Diwali.
✨ Honoring stillness as much as celebration — resting in the inner flame.

🕉️ Here’s the 2025 Diwali schedule, with each day carrying a special meaning and spiritual focus:

📅 October 18, 2025 – Dhanteras (7:17 PM – 8:20 PM)
Devotees honor Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Dhanvantari, seeking health and abundance.

📅 October 18, 2025 – Yama Deepam (5:49 PM – 7:05 PM)
A diya is lit with mustard oil to honor Lord Yama, the guardian of dharma and truth — a reminder to live ethically and without fear.

📅 October 20, 2025 – Choti Diwali (5:12 AM – 6:25 AM, Abhyang Snan)
Also known as Narak Chaturdashi, this day symbolizes freedom from negativity and ignorance, much like the cleansing of the mind through meditation.

📅 October 20, 2025 – Laxmi Puja (7:08 PM – 8:18 PM)
The heart of Diwali — a time to invoke Goddess Lakshmi, lighting lamps to dispel darkness and invite prosperity, happiness, and inner peace.

📅 October 22, 2025 – Govardhan Puja (6:26 AM – 8:42 AM & 3:29 PM – 5:44 PM)
Honors Lord Krishna’s act of protection — a reminder of faith, compassion, and balance with nature.

📅 October 23, 2025 – Bhai Dooj (1:13 PM – 3:28 PM)
Celebrates the bond between siblings, a reflection of connection and love — yoga in relationship.

🪷 As you celebrate this season of light, take a quiet moment to breathe, light a small candle, and ask yourself:
Where can I bring more light? More kindness? More clarity?

May this Diwali illuminate your path — both outer and inner. 🌸

💚 Yoga for people, not profit. Rooted in lineage, rooted in practice.
— Wood & Water Yoga

Send a message to learn more

10/14/2025

🌿🕉️ Reflections on Research & Lifelong Learning in Yoga 🕉️🌿

This year has been one of the most humbling and transformative of my life. I had the honor of conducting two studies related to yoga and meditation — one on meditation and recovery (as part of my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology) and another on spiritual transformation in yoga teachers (for my PhD in Yoga Science).

To the incredible yoga teachers in India and the United States who shared their time, stories, and wisdom — thank you. Your voices shaped this work and deepened my understanding of yoga far beyond what books or degrees can teach.

Even after completing both dissertations, I’m reminded daily that yoga is not a subject to master — it’s a lifelong study. I continue to meet with my scripture cohorts three times each week, studying both the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. These teachings offer new insights every time I revisit them — reminders of humility, devotion, and the balance between inner and outer work.

What stood out most in these interviews was the universality of spiritual transformation in yoga. Across cultures and traditions, transformation arises through active engagement with the Yamas and Niyamas — the ethical and spiritual foundations of practice.

Here in the U.S., we often think of yoga as exercise or stress relief. But asana is only the gateway — a way of preparing the body for deeper, inner practices of stillness, reflection, and surrender. The true work of yoga begins within.

If you’re interested in reading either of these studies, please reach out — I’d be happy to share a copy.

Gratitude to all my teachers — seen and unseen — and to every practitioner walking this path with sincerity and humility. 🌸

💚 Yoga for people, not profit. Rooted in lineage, rooted in practice.
— Dr. Jill Satnam, PsyD, PhD
Wood & Water Yoga

10/11/2025

🌿 Praise and Blame: Finding Balance in the Middle Path 🌿

This morning’s satsang with Dr. Omanand Guruji at the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Science and Research focused on Bhakti Yoga — the path of devotion — and included this timeless wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita.

“He who looks upon a lump of earth, a stone, and a piece of gold with an equal eye… who is steady, situated equally well in praise and blame… such a person is said to have transcended the modes of nature.”

Krishna teaches that one who remains steady through praise and blame, honor and dishonor, pleasure and pain — is free from the pull of the gunas, the material qualities that keep us cycling through desire and aversion.

When we stop chasing praise or avoiding criticism, something softens. We begin to act not for recognition, but from truth. This is karma yoga — selfless action — and it blossoms through bhakti, the surrender of ego into devotion.

✨ Today’s reflection:
• Practice acting from love, not approval.
• Receive feedback with grace, not defense.
• Remember that peace comes from balance — samatvam yoga ucyate — “Yoga is equanimity.”

May all our actions, thoughts, and words be rooted in devotion rather than reaction. 🌺

09/26/2025

🌹✨ Yoga Sutras Reflection ✨🌹

In My Bharath My Culture training on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, we were given a simple but powerful image:

👉 You can look at a plant and see only the thorns…
or you can notice and appreciate the one rose blooming among them.

How we choose to see makes all the difference.

🌀 We cannot erase the thorns — just as we cannot erase every painful memory.
🌀 But yoga teaches that we can add good thoughts, cultivate gratitude, and shift our attention toward what nourishes the heart.
🌀 This is the essence of mettā — loving-kindness: choosing to meet ourselves and others with compassion instead of criticism, to rest in goodwill rather than in suffering.

✨ To practice mettā is to look at the whole plant — the thorns and the rose — and gently choose to water the beauty, to lean toward what heals, without denying what hurts.

Yoga does not ask us to pretend pain isn’t real. It asks us not to be defined by it. With mettā, we remember: the heart is vast enough to hold both suffering and love, but it will always blossom where we place our attention. 🌿

💚 Yoga for people, not profit. Rooted in lineage, rooted in practice.

09/26/2025

🌿✨ Women’s Retreat: Shakti Sadhana ✨🌿
📍 Sat Manav Yoga Ashram, Industry, ME
🗓 Fri, Oct 10 – Thu, Oct 16
🔗 Retreat Info & Registration

I was recently told about this retreat, and I didn’t want anyone who practices with Wood & Water Yoga to let it slip by.

I honestly can’t believe there are still 4 spots open. What a gift here in Maine. We are so fortunate to have an ashram that honors lineage right in our own backyard.

✨ This retreat feels like the perfect way to recuperate from a busy summer.
✨ Navigating a life transition? This is one of the most meaningful ways to honor that shift.
✨ Or maybe you’re simply longing for stillness, depth, and community — this is it.

What’s inside:
🌸 Daily sadhana, asana & pranayama
🔥 Fire ceremonies (Dhuni), chanting, and puja in temple space
🌿 Healing nature immersion, herbal therapies, and sisterhood
🎨 Traditional mehndi/henna as part of the celebration
🥗 Nourishing organic meals, with intention held in a sacred container

💚 If you’ve been feeling the call, consider this your sign. This isn’t just a retreat — it’s a chance to step into living practice, rooted in tradition.

🔗 Reserve your space here: Shakti Sadhana Retreat

09/24/2025

🍂✨ Jill here! As the weather cools, our outdoor season is winding down — but community yoga continues! ✨🍂

🌿 Last Outdoor Gathering
Join us for the final free outdoor yoga class with Skowhegan Outdoors:
🗓 Sunday, September 28
🕘 9:00 AM
📍 Solon Overlook

🌿 Community Yoga Indoors (October Schedule)
For over two years, I’ve been honored to offer free community yoga with Skowhegan Outdoors, and that commitment is not changing. These classes are about connection, accessibility, and the simple joy of practicing together — always free and always open to all.

As the weather turns colder, Skowhegan Outdoors is moving community yoga indoors for the month of October at a temporary location in Skowhegan. Classes will be held at Riverview Yoga Shala, owned by Lidi Jang, who is also hoping this series will help introduce people to her business.

🧘 October Free Community Yoga
📍 Skowhegan Riverview Yoga Shala
⏰ Wednesdays, 5:00–6:30 PM

✨ Oct 8 & 22 → Jill Satnam
All-levels flow, meditation, and yoga nidra.
(I will also continue hosting free community yoga in other locations, including with Madison Recreation.)

✨ Oct 1, 15, 29 → Lidi Jang
Yin yoga — slow, grounding, and restorative.
(Lidi also offers additional classes that can be booked at cost through her site.)

🍁 As the seasons shift, I’m grateful for every opportunity to keep practicing together — moving, breathing, and resting in community.

Send a message to learn more