What Are You Holding Onto?

I was talking with a student before class the other night, and we both said the same thing—we’re exhausted. The time change, the sluggish end-of-winter energy, the dark mornings… it’s all hitting hard. And while, yes, the extra daylight in the evening is welcome, getting up in the morning? That’s another story. Even as someone deeply committed to my practice, there are days when that second alarm goes off, and I think, “Nope, not today.”

And that’s okay.

This time of year carries a weight for many of us. February is short but feels long. It’s heavy, dark, and for those of us who feel the effects of seasonal shifts, it can be a tough one to get through. Even as we inch toward spring, shedding the winter, stretching toward renewal, that sluggish, end-of-winter exhaustion is still hanging on.

And that’s exactly why this month’s theme, Ishvara Pranidhana (surrender), couldn’t have arrived at a better time.

Softening Your Grip and Letting Go

If you’ve been practicing and following along with me, you know we’ve been working through heart-opening postures this month. But opening the heart isn’t just about deep backbends—it’s about letting go, trusting, softening the grip we so often hold on life.

Ishvara Pranidhana is one of yoga’s niyamas—the guiding principles that help us live with more awareness, more intention. It’s the practice of surrendering to something greater than ourselves. Whether you call that divine energy, nature, breath, or just the flow of life, the essence is the same: we don’t have control over everything, and sometimes the best thing we can do is release our grip and lean into trust.

But let’s be clear—surrender is not giving up.

It’s not throwing our hands in the air and saying, “Forget it.” It’s a conscious practice of softening the ego’s need to control and allowing ourselves to move with the current instead of against it. And that’s hard. It’s scary. And it’s vulnerable.

Lessons in Letting Go

This theme has been hitting me in all kinds of ways lately. If you read my newsletter, you know I shared how surrender showed up for me when I had to close my yoga studio. That dream was something I held onto so tightly, convinced that if I just worked harder, if I just pushed through, I could make it work. But sometimes, life has different plans.

I fought against it for two years before I finally let go. And when I did, I realized – surrender wasn’t failure. It was a kind of freedom.

And it’s not just the big things. Surrender shows up in the small moments, too. Like when injury or illness forces us to pause. When a relationship shifts in a way we didn’t expect. When we have to accept that today’s practice, on or off the mat, might not look the way we thought it would.

Surrendering Through the Body

In class, we’ve been working with supported fish pose (matsyasana), savasana, camel pose (ustrasana) and other heart openers – all postures that ask us to trust, to soften, to create space.

• Supported Fish Pose gently opens the heart space while offering support and surrender—a balance of expansion and ease.
• Savasana—the ultimate pose of letting go—challenges us to do nothing (which, ironically, can be the hardest thing to do).
• Breathwork & Exhales remind us that we cannot take in another breath unless we first let one go.

I invite you to notice where you resist either on the mat, or in your life. Where do you tighten, grip, hold onto control? And can you, just for a moment, explore softening?

Welcoming the New Season

As we move toward spring, nature is modeling surrender for us. The earth doesn’t resist the changing season. It doesn’t cling to winter or force the blooms to open before they’re ready. It simply moves forward, allowing, trusting, unfolding. And so can we.

Surrender doesn’t mean we stop showing up. It means we trust the process. We let go to grow.

So as you move through this week whether you’re practicing on your mat, sitting with your thoughts, or navigating the busyness of life, I invite you to breathe, soften, and surrender to what is. Because there is beauty, even in the unknown.

Take a deep breath … and let it go.

xoM