Embodied Yoga, which has started to take off as a practice in yoga studios across Northern Europe, is less widely known than other yoga styles but is extremely powerful due to its inclusion of more Somatic approaches and Tantrik philosophy. But what exactly is embodiment and why is it becoming more and more popular? The benefits of this ‘non-asana centered practice’ are multiple and this is the reason of its popularity, although this ‘discipline’ “might not be for everyone at first”, admits Satu Tuomela, one of the most renowned teachers of this practice. I have studied the embodiment concept wholeheartedly through a long and inspirational interview with her and the insight it has given me has been priceless.

Maria M. Gonzalez: Why do you think embodiment isn’t practiced as much as say hatha, vinyasa or other classic disciplines?

Satu Tuomela: I don’t think embodiment is less practiced. It is just less practiced in yoga, still. There are a lot of somatic practices in the world. Embodiment and Somatics as approaches are fortunately coming into yoga more and more.

MMG: Might it be that embodiment is already present in people’s life but they just don’t know it?

ST: People definitely have an opportunity for embodiment in their daily lives, but we are maybe not intentionally practicing it. We have a body -we can’t not have a body- but many times we don’t pay enough attention to it, unfortunately. Only when something goes wrong do we listen and connect to our bodies. This is the moment when we realize there is something speaking clearly to us, as us. Embodiment helps us to be more aware of our bodies and to always listen to them all the time, not just at difficult moments. It goes beyond mindfulness because it doesn’t just recognize the body, but becomes the body. Yoga āsana practices like hatha or vinyasa bring about body awareness, for sure, but the way how they are taught most commonly is more often than not based on aligning the body correctly: We all have been in these classes where the teacher says for example “these and these are your muscles, they are called ‘this’, now feel them” or cues like “place your foot between your hands”, “back foot in 90 degree angle” etc… to create an asana. This is a useful way to place the body in a certain way (albeit it is not the same for everyone and this in not addressed many times) and there is definitely an opportunity for embodiment here, but I miss any guidance into the actual experience of the body. As teachers, we tend to say “make it a habit to listen to your body”, but we actually need to guide and teach practitioners how to do that. You can’t just order them to listen to their bodies, you need to provide the necessary tools to do this and teach them to use these tools.

MMG: How do you teach your students to listen to their bodies?

ST: I base my teaching on my own somatic experience and embodiment. At first it is important to be here, to explore what is called ‘Presencing‘. With it I call all the parts of me here and presence myself into this moment and my body, which is always in the present. This brings my mind into my body. Since it is very real and authentic, based on the experience happening in that moment, it is a very powerful experience of embodiment already. I share this practice with my students usually always in the beginning of a practice. The way to do it is not just to say “touch your cheekbones and try to feel them”. Also, the human mind is full of stories, about the body too, so it’s essential to go beyond these stories. Personally, I like to create visualizations from my own embodiment and experience as it invites with its authenticity for my students to connect to theirs. Visualizations catch the students’ attention at a mind level, they bring the mind into a connection with the body, and when they have reached this, they start to sense and feel and keep their attention there: the amazing journey of embodiment starts. It is frequent to come in and out of this process or practice, as the mind is tricky and wants a lot of entertainment, but the visualization, the pathway into recognition and becoming whatever we are practicing, will gently guide students in the experience over and over again. Visualizations are powerful tools, imagination IS power, especially for visual people. For those who are not that visual, I incorporate other senses too. Senses help us to get “in there” so in my approach, we do not try to shut them down, we allow them to guide us, taste the experience and bring us more into the Now and everything that is in it. I know the way I teach might not work for everyone, but personally I consider it very helpful.

MMG: What would you say to a person who has experienced classic disciplines but has never been in an embodiment class?

ST: They might feel a bit lost at the beginning and not like it because I’m not telling them exactly what to do and how to align the āsanas.  They might also start to feel a lot of sensations and emotions, which can be uncomfortable. People usually go to classes with the intention to forget about everything, be told what to do, or because they want to get fit. It means they don’t really focus on what it is happening in that moment because their minds are focused on the results they obtain with that practice. There is nothing wrong with that, but that won’t benefit embodiment. Inembodiment, we are really asked to explore what is “in there”, what is here. You don’t come to my class just to check out, you are there to check in. In embodiment you feel so much and you are encouraged to do so. This is just amazing, very empowering and liberating when we truly release into the experience.

MMG: And what about those yogis who aren’t able to appreciate this way of practicing yoga?

ST: I believe they might be afraid of facing themselves, all of it, in this practice. And that is very understandable, as it is A LOT.  But it is all still there, subconsciously. Your body is your subconscious mind. In my opinion, we mix the goal and tools easily. like, āsanas become the goal instead of being what they are intended to be, tools.  When a person uses yogic practices as tools and incorporates them into the daily routines as a habit, a ritual, it can turn into something special: a real connection, a meeting with and an act of gratitude to one’s own self, real Yoga I would say. That it is extremely important because it implies a high degree of independence in the practice, without any kind of guidance from outside.

MMG: You also own some yoga studios. Don’t you fear that if all students learn how to practice embodiment by themselves at home, they may stop going to the yoga studios and these won’t be profitable anymore?

ST: First of all, I am not doing this for the money. Secondly, your own practice is the most important thing, always, BUT it is not a substitute for the practice that you do in a yoga studio. It’s not about one being better than the other though, the main difference is the sense of “community spirit”. It is very important that you reach the “goal” of being independent in your own practice but that you still keep yourself in the community, where you will always be mirrored and where you find support. No man is an island they say, I agree. Where many practices connect you to you and inwards, the next step is to expand outwards to connect to the outside world. Embodiment and Tantra are very relational in that way too.

MMG: What’s the difference between a studio and a “community studio”?

ST: When I firstly founded Pranama, I was looking for a place where people could come to connect. After a long time working in different studios, I realized people just came there to do what I say, to forget about the hardest aspects of their daily life and they didn’t speak to others, except to the receptionist when they checked in. I felt that we were losing the human connection that is so natural to us. I wanted a yoga studio to be a space holder for that human connection and that became a deep-felt intention for me, and it still is. Therefore, I can proudly say we have succeeded in our purpose: people come to Pranama not just to practice yoga but also to socialize, exchange impressions, share, find advice and support and keep in contact with each other.

MMG: You teach Madhya in your embodiment classes. What is it?

ST: I define Madhya as the ‘gap time’ that happens naturally in our in-between moments like at the end of something and before something starts again. That transition that is always there but in which we rarely drop into. It comes from Tantra and can be considered as a tool in embodiment too when we start to pay attention to this gap time in our practice. It can help us to reach and sense into the actual reality before we have a thought about it. Madhya practice, for me, is very important because it helps me to widen my awareness to recognizing what we ultimately are: Divine Consciousness. You have probably had these thoughts sometimes like: “is this all there is?”; You wake up, go to work, come home, eat and sleep…just to do it again the next day. That might seem like suffering in those moments, right? Madhya practice engages us into what is actually real in that moment. We start to release into it without living in the past or future, and recognize that this is actually not all that there is, but this is also at the same time enough. Madhya, as meditation, is supported by the idea that ‘just being’ is enough. Madhya is an ambitious practice nowadays because we live in ‘the world of the overwhelming abundance of everything’: we have a lot of tasks to attend to, a lot of places to go, a lot of emails to respond to…but Madhya is an opportunity to awaken into a more blissful state from that insane circle, or loop. Just pay attention to the end of every breath, every moment and every thought for a while now and see if you become more peaceful just by doing that.

MMG: How can we reach Madhya?

ST: The way to reach Madhya can be through meditation, between breaths or if we are practicing a more active discipline, I like to play with Madhya in between poses, sequences etc. just to pause and really drink up what you are sensing and feeling, to what is.

MMG: How would recommend a person with no experience of Yoga or Tantra to find Madhya?

ST: Meditation is the best way in this case, specifically guided meditation for those people who have never meditated. In this case, as a teacher, I would guide students through Tantrik meditation, where the main concept is just being aware of everything happening in the present moment. I would guide in to the pauses between the breaths and eventually they start to illuminate and be felt. You are not retaining the breath here, just lingering in the ‘in-between’ of inhale and exhale, for example. I think this idea is simply amazing. The ultimate practice is to be able to really feel this pause, gap time, Madhya even before thinking about it. At the end, opportunity for this is always there, we just need to recognize it, and then we recognize our divinity.

MMG: What is the difference between classical Yoga and classical Tantra?

ST: Classical yoga is the practice suggested in Patañjali yoga sutras. There are no asanas in this practice, sitting yes.  As I’ve studied it, it has a lot of benefits in it but maybe it is a bit misunderstood in the yoga world. It is a very dualistic approach and not about love and union with everything (union with God yes), even though many think so. Yoga sutras is more related to the idea of transcending this life and the body.

Tantra is different, because it is about awakening. Awakening into a real experience of everything. Thus, there is no preferential practices into a certain feeling or experience. It’s just about being with, releasing into, what is, and that brings about a sense, an experience, of non-separation, non-duality, sense of the Heart, the Great Consciousness, Śiva nature, and even love in a way. My teacher says ‘our practice is to love everyone, but we don’t necessarily have to like them’. That really resonates with me. Tantra is an intimate practice, first and foremost, with ourselves and thus a completely different concept than neo-tantra, which is a newer practice and includes many sexual practices.

MMG: Let’s talk sexual abuse. This issue is popping up right now despites it’s being present since long time ago in yoga unfortunately. Consider for example the case of the ashtanga founder, Pattabhi Jois, who abused his students for many years in the 80’s and 90’s. Why do you think the victims -mainly women- have started to talk about it recently?

ST: Because of the #metoo movement, women are more courageous these days when it comes to talking about their traumatic experiences. In the yoga world, if a woman gets sexually abused, the perpetrator is more often than not a man, but I’ve also heard cases where other women have been the perpetrator. It’s a question of ego, or of “guru mentality”, as I like to call it. Many teachers have a sense of being necessary, indispensable. We are not and this is what we should hold space for. As teachers we should be responsible enough to keep boundaries and also teaching this to our students. Even if we feel a student needs further assistance like therapy, we must understand that we are not therapists (if we are not trained as one) and guide them to one. As teachers of Yoga, we are not here to heal people, but to help them find a healer within themselves and a more holistic, healing, way of life.

About Satu

Satu Tuomela is a movement educator and a senior yoga teacher with more than 20 years of experience in teaching and practicing. She fell in love with yoga in her teens and started to teach this discipline almost immediately. Satu has been trained in hatha, vinyasa flow, yin yoga, anusara and Embodied Flow™ where she has had the privilege to have Scott Lyons and Tara Judelle as teachers and mentors. Somatics, and especially Embodied Yoga, is the practice that has captivated her the most. She is the creator of Authentic Flow Tribe (her own school), Embodied Yin™ and the co-creator of Embodied Flow™ Yin, styles that she teaches all around the globe. Her classes are very much appreciated by her students due to her intuitive techniques based on her shamanic roots and knowledge of classical Tantra, the magical use of music and voice to connect and the understanding of human body. Despite her knowledge and experience, Satu never gives up on learning more. She studies non-dual Tantra and meditation with Sally Kempton and Christopher Wallis as her current main teachers.