Follow your nature. The practice is really about uncovering your own pose; we have great respect for our teachers, but unless we can uncover our own pose in the moment, it's not practice - it's mimicry. Rest deeply in Savasana every day. Always enter that pratyahara (withdrawn state) every day. And just enjoy yourself. For many years I mistook discipline as ambition. Now I believe it to be more about consistency. Do get on the mat. Practice and life are not that different.

I think it's possible for all of us to use our yoga to distract us from our yoga. Because we get so caught up in the form that we forget the soul.

You can't make yourself be compassionate, you can only keep stepping back and becoming a larger container in which compassion wants to live. The practice should open us up, and crack open our hearts again and again.

Taking time out each day to relax and renew is essential to living well.

What you want to get as a teacher is not an email or a Facebook post that says, 'I learned so much about headstands in your class'. What you want to get is 'I learned so much about myself and my life in your class'.

I believe that yoga should lead us to a place where kindness and compassion are instantaneous.

Compassion is fierce and strong, and it holds people accountable. But it doesn't do it with anger or judgment.