At Prajna Studios, it’s a joy to witness our students’ experiences as they explore the deeper layers of yoga practice. Recently, one of our students, Courtney Zenner, shared her journey through Tias Little’s course, The Yoga of the Subtle Body. Her reflections reveal how the practice goes beyond the physical postures that often dominate social media, inviting practitioners to a quieter, more profound experience of yoga.
Reflecting on her experience, Courtney noted, “The problem with striving for the ‘achievement’ of a peak pose is that this narrow striving can become a major diversion from the core teachings of yoga.” Tias’ teachings open a path beyond physical form, guiding students into subtler realms of mental, emotional, and spiritual connection.
In class, Tias reminds us that ancient yogis viewed yoga as a contemplative practice, with a focus on inner transformation rather than external accomplishment. “Yoga back then was a contemplative science,” he shares, inviting students to “open your innermost being to the vastness of time, to the interconnection of the universe.” This is the heart of the subtle body: reaching beyond the surface of physical movement to touch something much more profound.
Tias leads students through gentle, supported postures, focusing on the body’s energy layers, or shukshma sharira. These layers can feel elusive, yet they impact not only how we feel within but how we engage with life beyond the mat. As Courtney observed, “Tias’ work elucidates that which may at first seem illusory: the pulsatory rhythms, bioenergetics, and flow of our inner bodies that have immeasurable impact on our outer lives.”
Even with the complexity of concepts like the chakras and nadis, Tias brings them into a grounded, accessible practice, linking them to the experience of movement and stillness. His emphasis on taking time and finding stillness allows the nerves and connective tissue space to “breathe.” In Tias’ words, “We hold poses long enough so the fascia that surrounds the nerves will release. This allows the nerves some space, room to ‘breathe,’ really.”
This spaciousness—the time to pause, reflect, and listen to the body—creates a foundation for subtle body teachings. Practicing this kind of awareness nurtures a calm strength, supporting both our physical and mental well-being. As Tias encourages, “Take a few minutes, at least twenty seconds, every day to connect to the ultimate.”
Courtney found that, rather than striving for physical perfection, yoga’s true strength lies in attuning to the quiet rhythms of breath and heartbeat, the tiny observations that embody life itself. In her words, “Studying the subtle body requires slowing down, stopping, and expanding our awareness.” Through this, she discovered that a sense of ease and joy can grow in the space we create within ourselves.
If you’re drawn to explore these teachings, we invite you to join us for
Yoga of the Subtle Body.
This course offers a beautiful opportunity to slow down, cultivate resilience, and experience the fullness of being through yoga. Embrace the inner harmony that arises when we pause, listen, and connect with the quiet strength within.
Hear from Cortney’s Experience
By Courtney Zenner, RYT-200, MFA candidate
We see images all over social media of strong, flexible, experienced yoginis and yogis in impressive, powerful body contortions. It’s hard not to admire a photo or video of a sun-kissed, athletic body practicing difficult postures on a yoga mat in flattering light. Add a backdrop of a tropical beach, an enviable calm smile, and a perfect-looking “peak pose” and voila, there’s the pinnacle achievement of practicing yoga. Right?
Wrong. It’s true that one aspect of yoga may be working through a sequence toward a final pose. But as Tias Little teaches in his online series “The Yoga of the Subtle Body,” this is only one small part. The problem with striving for the “achievement” of a peak pose is that this narrow striving can become a major diversion from the core teachings of yoga.
It’s not just gymnastics that draws people to yoga. A good yoga class, or even a well-guided twenty-minute yoga practice, is much more than exercise. There’s the deepened focus, the more relaxed, slower breathing, the oxygenation of muscles, the way that mindful movement benefits our internal organs, and the endorphins of the exercise itself. But yoga also offers a feeling of inner quiet, which is rare in our hurried society. A reserved strength, a sort of solidity, a sense of fluidity and ease. Why does yoga leave us feeling attentive, spacious, and strong? Why does well-guided yoga feel so good?
“The ancient yogis were not interested in the degree of difficulty of a posture. That is a modern obsession,” explains Tias in today’s online class as students arch into backbends at the wall, supported by props such as chairs, bolsters, and straps. “Yoga back then was a contemplative science. By practicing these asana, by opening the spine, by opening the brain stem, you open your innermost being to the vastness of time. To the interconnection of the universe, or brahman.”
These are the teachings of the subtle body. In yoga we move our physical anatomy, but this is simply a vehicle to access and attend to our mental, emotional, and psycho-spiritual being. Almost a decade ago, Shambhala Publications came out with Tias’ Yoga of the Subtle Body: A Guide to the Physical and Energetic Anatomy of Yoga. As in his course by the same title, Tias illuminates the complex system of the shukshma sharira, the subtle body, and offers relevant breathing practices, meditation techniques, and on-the-mat postures that link body, mind, and spirit. It’s a centuries-old recipe for holistic health, explained in clear modern terms; insight and deep guidance about the ways our mind affects our tissues. Tias’ work elucidates that which may at first may seem illusory: the pulsatory rhythms, bioenergetics, and flow of our inner bodies that have immeasurable impact on our outer lives.
It can be intimidating as a yoga teacher to try to peek into ancient Vedic philosophy and relate it to your everyday downward dog. It’s a tall order for an hour and a half movement class to link our sweaty, imperfect bodies to the ultimate truth of existence. But that’s what these subtle body teachings do.
There is rich symbolism in these yoga systems, and Tias teaches the subtle body through “the yogic imagination,” offering clear explanations of the chakras (energy centers within the body), naddis (“little rivers” of energy), and koshas (“layers” of the body, mind, and spirit). Regardless of the descriptive terms, when it all comes down, the subtle body is housed in our human body. And so these sometimes-esoteric teachings are always grounded in the movement (and also stillness) of the physical body.
“We hold poses long enough so the fascia that surrounds the nerves will release. This allows the nerves some space, room to ‘breathe,’ really,” Tias says. This is one reason that it is critical to allow time on the mat to pause, rest, and watch what the body does after asana – not only in the final relaxation pose of savasana, but in thirty-second observations – horizontal, flat-on-your-back quiet pauses – between sequences. Making space on the mat makes space for observation of inner sensation.
This really is the taproot of the subtle body teachings. When we engage our movement and our “yogic imagination” and create this space for our own nervous system, our nervous system immediately becomes more easeful and attuned. And when our nervous system is more attuned to itself, to the body it inhabits, and to its surrounding environment, we feel naturally more alert. We become more aware and inclined toward relaxation and ease. Toward a state of rest and wellbeing. Which is health. Which is the human body in its innate, most natural, joyful expression.
Ultimately, the subtle body can be toned in the same way that a muscle can be toned. But we have to practice it. “Take a few minutes, at least twenty seconds, every day to connect to the ultimate,” Tias often reminds students.
So, practicing awareness of the subtle body means daily and weekly sessions in meditation and on the yoga mat. Unlike striving for an ultimate “perfect” posture, contacting the subtle body requires slowing down, stopping, and expanding our awareness to include the very end of the exhale, the quietest heartbeat, the tiny neurons, and the threadlike nerve endings. When we create spacious awareness within the body through yoga, we see that – as science has proven – the body is itself mostly space. And then we experientially understand the vastness of the infinite universe that is beyond our physical body.
It’s a paradox, the concept that “achieving” wellness in our body, mind, and spirit through yoga ultimately requires slowing down and letting go. Our achievement-oriented society makes it easier for us to identify a goal, put our nose to the grindstone, go go go, and work hard to get there. Studying the subtle body requires throwing all that forward motion out the window. “The first thing to do is to just do nothing,” Tias says.
There are many paradoxes in yoga. We create space to observe the tiny, subtle sensation of heartbeat, or breath-rhythm, or nerve pulsation. This tiny observation is actually the greatest strength. When we create space to observe these blissful subtleties of mind, body, and spirit, we create space that becomes wellbeing and harmony both within our own human experience and also out in the world. What feels good for us is good for us. This is the power and strength of the subtle body.
