Jessamine tells her students that this is the point of performing all the yoga poses they practice. The Asanas are there to help us accept the hard challenges that come not on our yoga mats, but in life. "You need for things to be hard so that you can actually strengthen from the inside," she says.
We often think of yoga as a physical exercise - but a centuries-old Sanskrit text, The Yoga Sutras, share teachings intended to improve both the body and mind. The author, Patanjali, makes clear that the poses and stretches are only part of picture - we also need to be kind, contemplative and grounded.
Jessamyn Stanley (yoga teacher and author of Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance) takes Dr Laurie Santos through Patanjali's text - saying its lessons "can be applied in every circumstance, no matter who you are or where you are".
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