If you’re a yoga practitioner, chances are you’ve come across Yoga: A Gem for Women. It’s a book that most women yoga practitioners turn to, even if they are from other lineages.
There’s no single comprehensive resource that helps women understand how yoga can support fertility, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and beyond. Reading this book when I was exploring my own health and trying to find solutions changed this book for me. It gave me a softer view of a woman’s health and taught me to gave me a holistic view of how yoga nurtures women through all of it.
If you’ve followed my fitness journey, you know the long story of my unexplained infertility. I’ve spoken extensively about how yoga and other alternative healing methodologies helped me during that time. That’s when I turned to Yoga: A Gem for Women again, hoping to find a solution and some solace.
When Agi Wittich started a book club to read Gem again, I decided this was the perfect time to read the book cover to cover, something I hadn’t done before. Agi, herself a yoga practitioner, has also been influenced deeply by Geeta Iyengar’s teachings. You can watch our conversation about her pregnancy and postpartum experience, and the influence of yoga on her life.
This is the last night of the workshop. As always, I feel like I’m taking a lot back with me – things I may not even be aware of yet, but that will manifest themselves in my practice, my studies and in my life.
Something I really like about classes at RIMYI is that they aren’t so much about learning asanas, but about the wisdom woven into the teachings. Students often ask
There’s a pigeon who has laid eggs outside the window of my bathroom. Every time I open the door of the bathroom, no matter how quietly, she gets disturbed. I feel bad, acutely. When I was shown into this room Dheeraj told me they noticed the eggs for the first time when they came back from Diwali break, and they didn’t have the heart to push them out. Every time the pigeon flutters in alarm and walks away from her eggs I feel an ache in my heart. I know how the pigeon feels. I don’t want to be responsible for its fear, I want it to know her eggs are safe.
I attended another weekend yoga workshop in Bellur this weekend. This time I didn’t stay overnight (here’s a short video of what its like to attend an overnight yoga retreat there). I drove down on Saturday and reached in time for the evening session. By the time I got home it was 10 pm. The next morning I returned, starting the journey at 6 am.
Last time I took Kalindi and Animesh with me, but it’s now 15 months postpartum and I feel it’s time to start attending retreats without the necessity of taking my entire household with me. Honestly, I never thought what yoga retreats after childbirth would be. But I instinctively knew I shouldn’t wait for when I’m ready. I will have to coerce myself to remember how wonderfully valuable and transformative these immersions are, and that might me resist the temptation of convenience and remember my commitment.
I first came across Agi Wittich and her work on Facebook. I saw a post about ‘Yoga Readers‘ — an online book club that reads and discusses books on yoga. Agi is unique in that she brings structure and academic rigor to reading yoga, a direct result of her extensive work in academia. In a world where yoga is a popular buzzword and just about everyone claims to be a teacher or expert, I find her approach refreshing—it compels me to think about my postpartum yoga practice and what it means to me as a woman, mother and yoga teacher.
It was in one of these meetings that Agi said, “As a woman, I’m in postpartum until I’m in another phase of a woman’s life.” As someone who had crossed the one-year postpartum mark, I was intrigued by this statement. It made me question the idea of ‘normal’ that women in postpartum often think about. I often wonder if I’m irrevocably changed and should put the past version of me to rest. I decided to ask Agi to speak with me about her experience and thoughts on motherhood and postpartum as a yoga teacher. I was sure that, just like her book club meetings, our conversation would also be remarkable and insightful.
Yoga as a Tool for Postpartum Presence
Agi’s statement stems from her study of Yoga: A Gem for Women, Geeta Iyengar’s seminal book — the first book to focus on yoga primarily for women. In the book, Geeta details how yoga can benefit women in different phases of life (menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause) and provides detailed yoga sequences for each phase, including postpartum yoga practice. She speaks from a point of kindness and compassion for a woman’s changing body, focusing on nurturing women through these phases for long-term health and happiness. I love what this means for the yoga practice — that it’s not a static sequence of asanas that limbs execute day after day. Rather, it’s a practice that curves and bends and twists with us as we navigate what it means to live and breathe and interact with the world, and have a body that is receptive to life.
That our practice serves our bodies and not the other way around.
The Asceticism of Motherhood
Agi also put into words an experience me and other mothers know intimately – the ‘asceticism’ of motherhood. As our babies start to explore the world, they grab and pull at our earrings, our hair, our jewellery, and our clothes. Mothers find themselves removing anything that ‘gets in the way’ (of our babies, but also our lives). This process of shedding the unnecessary goes beyond just the physical and also reflects in out emotional landscape — we let go of relationships, thought patterns, even just things that can no longer be adjusted to the complexity of our new lives. (Postpartum is often about reassessing and then reclaiming these things — perhaps discarding them was a momentary need and they are useful after all.) In a strange way, this act of asceticism helped me assert myself — I would take for myself what served me and leave the rest to its destiny.
Why These Conversations Matter
My conversation with Agi helped me see my postpartum phase not as a recovery period, but as a lived, ongoing practice in its own right. Motherhood—like yoga—needs presence, flexibility, and a willingness to keep evolving. The postpartum phase doesn’t have a fixed end point, it’s a stop on the journey. These conversations help me approach this phase without losing myself, and that’s why I share them—because if listening to others helps me, then it might help you too.
The philosophy of yoga and Vedanta sometimes intersect, and I love spotting this overlap in different classes.
During the last RIMYI class I took, Raya spoke about letting go. When we talk about letting go of something, there is an assumption that you’re holding on to something. It’s important to analyse this something. How are you holding on to it? Why are you holding on to it? Once we analyse it, can we let it go?
To make it relevant to the asana practice Raya asked us to ask ourselves what we were feeling in the asana we were holding (Uttanasana). What were we truly feeling? Were we feeling our hamstrings hurting, or was the back hurting, or were we holding the abdomen too tight? When you can identify what you are holding – you can begin to let it go. “I let go of my back, I let go of my abdomen, I let go of….” He asked us to do the same in Sirsasana, but focus on mental conditions/conditionings. He asked: Can letting go be voluntary? Can we actively let go?
He gave us the example of how he came across a ratty old t-shirt when he was cleaning his cupboard. Everyone tells you to let go of this old tee that you don’t even use anymore, but you can’t. We need to understand that it’s not the object that we can’t let go – it’s the memories associated with it that we’re unable to let go.
What are we actually holding on to? Can we analyse that similar to how we analysed Uttansana? Mentioning yoga sutra 1.11 he asked us to ponder over what is the role of memory and cleansing the memory. Can we actively identify and do something about? Letting go of an old t-shirt is easier than letting go of memories. Memories can be good, troublesome, traumatic, ecstatic. How do we deal with this baggage of memories and how does it impact us? Can we let go of attachment to the memory? Can we actively let go of sad memories? Going into parsva sirsasana he asked us to contemplate looking at the memory from a different angle.
अनुभूतविषयासंप्रमोषः स्मृतिः PYS 1.11
Memory is the unmodified recollection of words and experiences.
He spoke about two sutras that he would frequently speak to Guruji about:
सुखानुशयी रागः PYS 2.7
Pleasure leads to desire and emotional attachment.
दुःखानुशयी द्वेषः PYS 2.8
Unhappiness leads to hatred.
A person with a sense of discrimination should strive a balance between sukha and dukha instead of living a the mercy of these two. There are so many triggers in life today – we are all used to certain manners, ways and customs. But can we let go of getting triggered? Raya told us that us to actively open our drawers and pull things out and look at everything that comes out and ask ourselves if we are using it. Have we been keeping certain memories in the cupboard, maybe even in the freezer. And even in the freezer have they become rotten and started stinking? Can we actively bring these memories out, clean them up and throw them away?
How do we throw these memories away? By turning it from klista to aklista.
वृत्तयः पञ्चतय्यः क्लिष्टाक्लिष्टाः PYS 1.5
The movement of consciousness are fivefold. They may be cognizable or non-cognizable, painful (klista) or non-painful (aklista).
The fact that it happened remains, but the feeling associated with it goes. Raya also stressed that we all want happiness, but we remember the sad things more – happiness has a shorter shelf life. Happiness is like camphor or mercury – you can’t hold it, it evaporates.
Next in Sarvangasana, Raya asked us to finally consider what we can let of of intellectually. He spoke of fear and how we’re all fearful of something. But some are able to face their fear because they have practiced handling this fear. Practice analysing your fears and insecurities – once analysed can we let them go? After giving daanam in a temple, we pour water over our hands symbolically ‘washing away’ our attachment with what we’ve given. We need to let go of claiming things – ‘I’ did this, ‘I’ own this etc. The most difficult thing is to let go of this claim. After letting go of these claims, can I let go of the ‘I’ itself?
When one moves from the grossest to the subtlest, neither the beginning is seen nor the end.
My Vedanta teacher always stresses the importance of balance in life. It is important for us to seek pleasure, but also to accept that pleasure and pain come together. As seekers we are encouraged to go after our dreams and desires, but we need to remember that the result of our pursuit depends on many factors. Therefore, we can’t be swayed by victory or defeat, sukham or dukham. We should pursue life according to dharma, and with the best of our physical, emotional and intellectual intent. And surrender the results, fruits, fear and even happiness to a higher purpose.
What is left to surrender when I have surrendered everything?
My teacher explained the idea of surrender using verse 18.66 of the Bhagawad Gita.
In this shloka Lord Krishna is asking Arjuna for the ultimate surrender – the surrender of the ‘I’ or the ego. Letting go of the ‘I’ in all the claims that I make. Once I have surrendered everything, I surrender the ‘I’ too. And in that way I merge with the One, the universal consciousness.
In the last two weeks I’ve had two requests for a restorative class. Seems like an interest in restorative asanas is building up. In view of the times we are living in, I’m not entirely surprised by the request. However, I do feel that the requests were fueled more by the idea that restorative postures are for when you’re unable to do your regular workout, instead of a useful addition to the routine.
It’s a common mistake to equate ‘restorative’ yoga with ‘too easy for me’ yoga. Many people consider restorative yoga classes to be ‘slow’, ‘easy’ and ‘for the old and injured’.
It is incorrect to think that a restorative yoga class is an easy yoga class that is somehow less than a vigorous sweat sesh.
What Are Restorative Asanas?
Restorative asanas ‘restore’ your body. Restore it’s energy, vitality and good health. Classes are slower, with longer holds for asanas. Students are encouraged to use props and to always rest the forehead. When you rest the forehead, your nervous system immediately relaxes. In fact, I’ve taken my students through an entire class designed to show the difference between supported and unsupported asanas. Watch it here.
The asanas in a restorative class are a subset of the ones in your regular yoga class. But these are asanas focused more on forward bending and gentle twists and backbends (all with the support of props). Below are examples of a few asanas that you may encounter in a restorative class.
Supta Badhakonasana. I love beginning a restorative class with this posture.
A restful janu sirsasana. Restorative asanas focus on relaxing the mind, by resting the head.
Dwi pada viparita dandasana. This posture is very intense, but this variation can be done even while you’re menstruating (as I was when this picture was taken).
A supported sarvangasana – a posture that should be done daily, but is not accessible to all. The props make it easier and more restful.
Benefits of Restorative Yoga
Provides relief from anxiety and stress. Holding asanas for longer helps in releasing deep seated tightness.
Great for when you’re menstruating! Even on your first day!
Promotes better sleep.
Helps the body to heal. When your nervous system is rested it starts to work optimally, providing a boost to the healing systems of the body.
Improves immunity. A stressed mind impairs the body’s ability to produce immunity-boosting cells, leaving the body prone to infection.
Lowers blood pressure (by promoting relaxation).
Relief from a busy mind and fast thoughts.
What’s interesting is that though a restorative class is slower than other forms of yoga, it doesn’t mean that a flexible and bendy practitioner who is ‘good’ at yoga will be ‘good’ at restorative yoga too. In fact, I’ve seen very flexible and seemingly energetic students find it difficult to ‘rest’ and ‘do nothing’. After all, in such a busy and complicated life, stillness is elusive and to sit and simmer with it all is more elusive still.
Have you ever practiced restorative asanas? Do you find value in adding an element of restorative yoga to your existing yoga/fitness routine?
Today we had the privilege to have Susanne Mayer as our guest teacher. Susanne’s session was called Hands & Feet in Yoga. The hands and feet are the base in all asanas, and we hardly pay attention to their placement and positioning. When practicing asanas our attention moves to the gross body, and we rarely think of the seemingly ‘unimportant’ aspects of the asana. During the session we learned how to use our hands and feet to bring stability to our asanas and used blocks to understand them more. Below is a recording of the class, since I know many of you will want to follow along.
I met Susanne about 4 years ago at RIMYI (Pune) and last year we hosted our first yoga retreat together in Liguria, Italy. Below is a snapshot of a conversation I had with Susanne some time last year. I had intended to put it up on the blog back then, but have only gotten around to it now.
When did you start practicing yoga?
On a day off during our Liguria 2019 retreat.
I started practicing a long long time ago, but it was not Iyengar yoga.
My first Iyengar-like Yoga experience came from a used little pocket book I saw in the street of some South American city, I believe it was in Buenos Aires or Santiago – don’t remember. It was titled “Yoga for Americans” and is written by “Indra Devi” who was, just like Iyengar a student of Krishnamacharya (I didn’t know anything of that, back then…), but I guess she was at Krishnamacharya’s a bit later than Iyengar. She was the first woman who Krishnamacharya agreed to teaching yoga –- after first refusing to do so. He was basically forced by the Maharaja of Mysore’s wife in whose place he had lived and taught their children for so long. Indra Devi was American from Los Angeles and had developed an early love for India and the films produced there, subsequently she starred in several old movies from that time around the 1930s onwards…
That little book traveled with me and was pulled out each morning when I had to get up and out of our tight bed in our VW camper van in which I traveled with my boyfriend and another friend through South, Central and North America from 1977-1979. We were sort of hippes then…
But each morning I rolled out my woolen blanket when I had found a level patch somewhere near and started with some rounds of Surya Namaskara, then some other poses, but mostly learnt and practiced headstand. Without any wall behind my I just did as she describes in that book, and one day it worked. Don’t ask me what that looked like… 😉
Between then and my first time with Iyengar yoga, there were lots of periods when I’d rather dance, Contemporary, Jazz, Brazilian and classic ballet styles alike. But after a while I always returned to yoga, as it seemed to offer something on top of the beauty in bodies moving along with nice music, something deeper. resonating within me with more satisfaction and promising more understanding of whatever there was out there.
On that long way I had many different teachers and went to different yoga centres – Sivananda was the most wide spread in germany at that time, but only in big cities like Munich where I lived for a while, and Frankfurt where I also had a stint for work at television. Nothing in Stuttgart… Somehow I lost it again and again because either I moved to another place for work or a good teacher changed pathways and went elsewhere.
Until I met an old friend at a jazz club one night who I hadn’t seen in a long time. I told me: ” I’m doing great, I practice yoga.” I was surprised – he didn’t seem like a yoga student type to me. He told me he had suffered from migraine all his life and was “out” for a few days each month but had been alright since he started yoga.
I instantly asked him where he went to practice and he told me about this great teacher close to my house, and I was there the next morning… 😉
After those first 90 minutes I walked out and felt my whole body vibrating and lifting up by itself.
That was it for me. I went back for years, up to 3-4 times a week. Until I asked my teacher how I could get deeper into the philosophy of yoga. He recommended a teacher training to explore that. As I had been teaching at university for many years and was happy being a student, I didn’t quite want to go there, but he said I could just do it and then see if I’d really want to teach. So….
Susanne’s cute mini cooper was also our main ride to the city during the retreat.
What brought you to yoga?
My mat was and is my island – away from my continuous stream of work and my little family back then, and
presently, as someone who recently retired and has all the time of the day to their own disposition, it’s more and more to meet with my deeper inner being, experience my breath, and to still these endless movements of my all too vivid mind.
Back then, luckily my young son also had training sessions of sports on some evenings or didn’t mind me returning home a bit later, and my partner usually never returned from his office before 7:30pm for dinner anyway, and sometimes I also went in the early mornings, before I went to uni… It was doable. In 2012 I started my teacher training and since then, for me my life has continually developed in an uplifting and creative way, breaking through what had been limits to my life so far, and it’s simply great.
I somehow also started teaching just because I really believe in the power of practicing yoga in a multidimensional way and felt an urge to help passing it on to others.
I experience teaching as a most giving process. While I still worked at uni, sometimes I felt really tired when I went to my yoga classes right after returning home in the evening, but after teaching one or two yoga classes, I come out somehow elated and energized. Which is amazing and very fulfilling.
What keeps you going?
Yoga keeps changing my life for the better, my body is healthy, my mind is alive, I feel younger than ten years ago, in some ways at least as far as my energy goes.
With age my body is giving me new challenges with problems in several joint areas. Iyengar Yoga is the best to deal exactly with such issues, and this made me start studying yoga therapy a year ago. It is physio therapeutic work including the aligning, joining and relaxing aspects of yoga.
Yoga helps a lot with another process which comes with getting older, which is much more important than physical ability, I believe.It forces us to look inside ourselves and towards an understanding of our mind’s workings.
We overcome new challenges of all kinds with new and never ending confidence about our ability to tackle almost anything by simple continuous practice of asanas and meditation.
And so on…
The entire Liguria 2019 crew having one last dinner before we bid each other adieu…until next year.
What was your day job?
I worked at the Stuttgart Media University, where I held a professor position for more than 20 years. Nearly 35 years of facing ever changing media, software and computer systems, the amounts of communication that come along with these jobs simply made me sit, and sit and sit, looking into this square screen, not noticing how time flew away, until my body cried for help.
Plus – my son told me I was hunching forward at the dining table like an old woman (…children usually tell the truth as bitter as it may taste…), and mostly my bones told me I couldn’t really get up and walk after long hours of computer work – I HAD to do something….
Why Iyengar yoga for you?
I noticed this was a different kind of teaching. I was told what do with my different body parts, where to put my attention to and what parts to connect or stretch – unlike in other yoga styles where there is no real instruction, just showing poses with the order: …and now you do it (…which ever way you can…)
There was helpful correction into alignment and I started understanding little by little what yoga really was about.
I could feel the wholeness of my body and its limbs, including my minds workings, and I understood the ways some parts wouldn’t go unless I was shown or told how to do it “right” – after which it always felt like another epiphany, one after the other…
How many times have you been to India?
Only twice in my life – but there will be more… 🙂 I had been scared for a long time, that India would catch me emotionally and I might not be able to bear seeing so much poverty next to utter luxury and not cry out loud…
But now… maybe due to my yoga practice and learnings on Indian history and philosophy I might be able and also want to understand a lot better. I can definitely feel my fascination with India’s culture after my only two visits during those last years growing…
The first time was in February 2017 when I flew back from Australia via Delhi to visit an Indian friend who came to visit my partner and me some years before in Germany. She had invited me to come and meet her family in Delhi, always telling me, if I ever come to India, to come to her house so she could plan all else from there with me.
The whole family was incredibly helpful in answering all my “newbie” questions about their daily rituals, and also the reason for all these maids in the house who all shared a different kind of mini job. Like one came just to do the dishes, another who actually lived in the house, was presently trained in cooking specials, where to shop for food and what to prepare, yet another came in each day for washing clothes (by hand…) and another one came to clean the house…
Still, my friend seemed utterly exhausted by having to manage all that along with her mother-in-law in whose house they lived.
I thought – WOW, at home I do all that by myself… plus I raise my kid and have a full-time job…
After 3 or 4 days Delhi I sort of fled to Goa, just to be able to walk and breathe some clean air on an open beach again which I had just left behind in my favourite places in Australia…
But that didn’t happen before I explored some really stunning places in Delhi – like the Red Fort, Humayun’s Tomb and I couldn’t get enough of the beauty of architecture, harmony, geometry, and the poetry and music which was offered through the audio guides there.
All in all this was a great introduction to one of the biggest cities, rounded by a surprise concert with my favourite Tabla player Zakir Hussein who happened to play a charity concert at my friends’ sons’ college on my last night there.
Coincidence organized by the universe I like to think.
After about a week in Goa I went to Pune to visit the RIMIY institute for the first time – mainly to find out of I really felt I could go there half a year later for my practice month which I had signed up for already years before.
I had heard all kinds of stories…
I had passed my teacher assessment just 2 years before I went there for the first time, and BKS Iyengar had already passed away by then.
But I was received very friendly, was allowed to go into the big shala to watch a class given by Abhijata and Raya who I had both met before during yoga conferences in Berlin and Basel/Switzerland.
Your favourite aspect of Iyengar yoga?
The unending depth of further explorations into our true being which keeps evolving more and more over the years.Exploring interpretations of the Patanjali Sutras with those more than 2000-year-old insights on the workings of a human brain and how Patanjali mentions bit by bit all the obstacles from simple to complex we as humans are confronted with on a daily basis… then obviously as today: it’s the very same phenomena as we experience today what is being discussed there.
Western psychology could have won tons of insights many years ago from these deep Eastern philosophical musings, had it not been largely ignored by Western snobbishness. It’s very slowly showing and dawning on the horizon in Western medicine and psychology/psychiatry, thanks to the hard work of a few determined doctors, academics, philosophers and healers alike.
There’s a general consensus among modern yogis that Viparita Karani or Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose may have the power to cure whatever ails you. (Yoga Journal)
In Sanskrit Viparita means ‘upside down’ and karani means ‘doing’. It is practiced widely as a restorative posture. When I started practicing yoga, I considered this an easy asana, specially the supported version. The full import of it is just starting to set in.
It helps to:
Regulate blood pressure.
Treat cardiac disorders.
Treat stress-related headaches, including migraines.
Gives relief from swollen feet.
Relieve nausea.
Contraindications for Viparita Karani
This is an inversion and as such should be avoided if you have serious eye problems such as glaucoma.
Busting the Myths
Although this is actually a restorative and relaxing asana, the final pose is quite difficult for beginners and those with stiff backs. Read on for some practice pointers.
Practice Pointers for Viparita Karani
You can do this asana with your legs on a chair, or even on your bed!
It’s a little unwieldy to get the buttocks close to the wall to get the legs up, but there is a technique (see video).
It is one of the greatest boons conferred on humanity by our ancient sages. (Light on Yoga p 212)
What is the Sarvangasana Cycle?
Sarvangasana is the Shoulder Stand yoga pose. I’ve written about the etymological structure and why it’s called the ‘Mother of All Asanas’ in this blog. It’s an important posture in the Iyengar style of yoga, practiced every day except during the menstrual cycle. Iyengar yoga practitioners practice the sirsasana – sarvangasana – halasana sequence every day. The Sarvangasana Cycle can be practiced once you’re reasonably comfortable with the alignment of the Sarvangasana.
s of computer work – I HAD to do something….
and I couldn’t get enough of the beauty of architecture, harmony, geometry, and the poetry and music which was offered through the audio guides there.
