It’s YOUR Practice: Yoga, Sovereignty and Choice

There is a phrase I say often when I teach:

“It’s YOUR practice.”

Sometimes I say it when offering different shapes. Sometimes when someone chooses to rest while others continue. Sometimes simply as a reminder that everything I offer is an invitation.

I see myself as a facilitator of our shared practice. I can bring knowledge, preparation and experience into the space, but I cannot know your body from the inside. You have absolute authority over your own body. You can pause, explore, change your mind or say no.

But for me, this goes much deeper than choosing whether or not to take a particular shape.

Yoga is a practice of liberation and sovereignty. Each time we pause long enough to notice what we actually need, rather than simply doing what is expected, we practise self-agency. We learn to listen. To question. To discern. To choose.

These small moments on the mat can reveal interesting things.

Am I taking this shape because I want to explore it, or because everyone else is? Am I staying because something feels meaningful, or because I think I should? Can I hear the quieter messages of my own body amongst all the instructions around me?

Sovereignty does not mean rejecting guidance or believing that our own perspective is always right. There is immense value in learning from those with greater knowledge and experience. Yoga itself comes to us through traditions and teachers who have carried and shared these practices across generations.

But we can receive wisdom without surrendering our discernment.

And I think this matters particularly in spiritual practice.

History has shown us what can happen when teachers are placed beyond question, when conformity is mistaken for devotion or when someone else’s certainty becomes more important than our own experience. A practice intended to lead towards liberation should not require us to give our power away.

Perhaps instead, practice can help us develop the awareness to recognise when we are doing exactly that.

The more we learn to listen inwardly, the more interesting the questions become:

What are you choosing for yourself?

Can you receive the wisdom of others while remaining rooted in your own discernment?

What would a practice rooted in freedom feel like?

Perhaps yoga does not give us definitive answers. Perhaps part of the practice is becoming quiet enough to hear our own wisdom — while remaining curious enough to question it too.

A teacher can offer guidance. A tradition can illuminate a path. A shared practice can hold and support us.

But the listening, discerning and choosing remain ours.

It’s YOUR practice.