Toasty Class Development: Introducing Power + Play

We have been open for six weeks now, and already I’m seeing something inspiring take root in our students.

There is a real desire to grow. Students are asking thoughtful questions, showing curiosity about more challenging postures, and looking for ways to deepen their practice beyond simply moving through a class.

That has put me in a reflective mode as I think back on my own yoga journey.

For much of the last 20 years, yoga was something I did because I knew it was good for me. It helped me move my body, focus my mind, and settle myself after busy days at work. For a long time, my practice stayed mostly on the surface.

Then I found hot vinyasa yoga.

For the first time, I noticed that yoga could shift more than my body. After 60 minutes on my mat, my mind was silent. My body felt stronger. My entire demeanor felt softer, steadier, and more peaceful.

Still, I didn’t fully understand yoga.

I didn’t yet understand how diverse yoga practices could be — hatha, yin, vinyasa, restorative, and beyond. I didn’t understand the philosophy behind the practice.  I certainly didn’t understand that the physical postures, the asanas, were only one part of a much larger tradition.

That curiosity eventually led me to yoga teacher training, which opened my eyes in a new way. Learning even a small piece of yoga philosophy helped me rethink every breath, every transition, and every posture. It helped me see the physical practice not as the whole point, but as one doorway into something deeper.

I don’t believe students should have to enroll in teacher training to access that depth.

Yoga philosophy should not be gatekept. And while anyone can go online and read about the eight limbs of yoga or explore the history of the practice on their own, I believe there is something especially meaningful about learning philosophy while moving through it.

Sometimes a concept lands differently when you feel it in your body.

That is where Power + Play comes in.

Beginning Saturday, June 13, Toasty Asana will offer Power + Play every other Saturday at 9:30 AM. This 95-degree class will be strong, sweaty, and exploratory. We will work toward more challenging asanas, but the goal will never be perfection.

Instead, we’ll use challenge as a doorway.

Each class will weave together dynamic movement, strength, balance, props, modifications, and yoga philosophy. We may explore arm balances, inversions, deeper transitions, or shapes that ask us to meet fear, ego, humility, effort, and breath in real time.

And in full transparency: I cannot do every posture we may work toward.

That is part of the point.

This class is not about arriving at the most impressive version of a pose. It is about practicing with curiosity. It is about learning how to meet effort without aggression, challenge without ego, and uncertainty without shame.

Power + Play is for students who want to deepen their practice through effort — not perfection.

My hope is that this class becomes a meaningful bridge: between traditional asana and modern movement, between physical challenge and inner reflection, between strength and softness.

If you’re curious, keep an eye on the schedule and reserve your spot.

We’ll meet you on your mat.