Thoughts on yoga – Bali

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It’s interesting the way yoga is perceived at the moment, those of us that love it, and have been practising with our hearts, watch in dismay, while yoga becomes a spa day or a holiday selling point.

Yes, it is lovely to practise, while you are away,

Yes, it is lovely to rest, in its massage, jacuzzi, swimming pool, relaxation experience.

Yes, it is lovely to be led, guided, into that peaceful state.

However, yoga is there to help us reduce the suffering in our lives wherever we are, it’s easy to find peace and joy in an external way, when the surroundings are right.

But the practise is at its most helpful when they are not.

When your world has gone crazy, and you need to find, internal peace, not external.

And when you need to find it on your own, for yourself.

When the teacher isn’t there, when the surroundings aren’t beautiful, when there is only you facing your fear, your challenge, only you and your circumstances.

When you have to become the teacher, and need to practise what you have learnt on your own.

The hardest part is when we face something that seems insurmountable, this is where we can turn away from our practise and forget what we believe in, and our view of the world.

This is when we need to have sraddha, faith, this is when we need to practise more.

On the mat, off the mat, we need to remember what we believe.

We can’t lose our peace because the world isn’t stable, it never has been!

We can’t lose our peace because life is hard, it always has been!

We can’t lose our peace because everything changes, that’s guaranteed!

These are the times we find our peace, because our peace is always there, we only have to stay still and look.

So, yes, a holiday in Bali would be nice, a relaxation, spa, massage, yoga experience.

But give me a crowded room, where I can still feel space.

Give me a bad day, that I can meditate on.

Give me a heart wrenching, gut churning experience that reminds me to stay present.

Give me adversity, that helps me to practise the tools I’ve been given.

I’d go for that every time.

Comments

90 responses to “Thoughts on yoga – Bali”

November 4, 2026

Mei Flores

I appreciate your distinction between practising yoga with the heart and treating it as just another Bali spa-day attraction. The reminder that yoga is meant to reduce suffering wherever we are gives the practice a much deeper purpose than relaxation alone.

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November 4, 2026

Jaden Avery

Typography choices become more practical when the output is ready to move into the place where it will be used. With text copy and paste, someone can compare a few treatments for a caption, username, or brief message and keep the one that matches the intended tone. A restrained style is often easier to scan, while a stronger variation can reserve attention for one key phrase. That kind of side-by-side decision process is more useful than applying decoration everywhere.

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November 4, 2026

The Bra Size Calculator

The image of finding space in a crowded room makes the point especially clear. It would be useful to hear how you help students carry one small part of a class into an ordinary, busy day when the teacher is not there. A brief example of that transition could make the idea of practising off the mat more concrete.

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November 4, 2026

Mei Flores

I appreciate the distinction you draw between yoga as a genuine practice and yoga packaged as a spa or holiday experience. The reminder that it is meant to reduce suffering in everyday life, not just create a peaceful retreat, really resonates.

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November 4, 2026

GPT Image 2.5

It is wild watching something that started out as a grounded personal practice get completely swallowed up by wellness marketing and Bali resort packages.

It reminds me a bit of trying to design clean brand assets for fitness sites without leaning into those same tired clichés, which is honestly where I usually end up using GPT Image 2.5 just to mock up some subtle, understated background textures that do not look like a stock photo.

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November 5, 2026

Amara Gallagher

I appreciate the distinction between practising yoga wholeheartedly and packaging it as a spa-day or holiday selling point. The reminder that yoga is meant to reduce suffering wherever we are gives the discussion a much deeper purpose beyond the relaxation experience.

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