Every year, International Day of Yoga reminds us of something remarkable – that a tradition thousands of years old is still alive, still practised, still offering something real to millions of people across the world.

That is worth celebrating.

But perhaps yoga’s truest value is not revealed when life is going well. Perhaps it is revealed when life falls apart.

When loss arrives.

When relationships change.

When illness disrupts our plans.

When disappointment reshapes the future we imagined.

When grief enters our lives.

Because sooner or later, every human being encounters experiences that cannot be fixed, solved or reasoned away. And it is here that yoga reveals its deeper purpose.

Yoga Was Never About Avoiding Suffering

The ancient yogis were not naïve about life.

They understood that human beings would encounter loss, uncertainty, attachment, disappointment and change. The Yoga Sutras begin by addressing the fluctuations of the mind – not because the mind is broken, but because a restless, suffering mind is the human condition. The practice was never intended to create a life free from challenge.

Rather, yoga offers the possibility of cultivating steadiness amidst challenge. A mind that is less reactive. A heart that is less overwhelmed. An awareness that can witness experience without becoming completely consumed by it. This does not mean becoming detached from life. It means developing the capacity to remain present to life as it is.

Grief Challenges the Mind

Anyone who has experienced grief knows that it affects far more than emotions.

Sleep becomes disturbed. Concentration becomes difficult. The body feels heavy. Memories replay repeatedly. The future becomes difficult to imagine.

The mind moves constantly between what was, what should have been and what can never be changed.

This is not a personal failing. It is part of being human.

Awareness Before Healing

For many years, I had a personal yoga practice and taught yoga to others.

Yet when personal loss entered my life, I discovered that having a yoga practice was not the same as being aware of the grief I was carrying.

Like many people, I was functioning. Working. Teaching. Moving through daily life. But beneath the surface, there was sorrow that had not yet been fully acknowledged.

It was through Grief Yoga that I began to notice where that grief was living – in the body, in the breath, in the stories I kept replaying and in the emotions I was trying to and still try to move past too quickly.

The practice did not take the grief away. It helped me become aware of it.

And awareness is often where healing begins. Because we cannot tend to what we do not recognise.

This International Day of Yoga

Grief often asks us to do what feels impossible – to continue living after loss, to carry sorrow and still remain present, to move forward while honouring what is gone.

No posture can solve this. But yoga offers something quieter and more lasting. A way to return to the present moment, to reconnect with the body, to meet the movements of the mind with greater compassion.

The question is not how much we know about yoga, or how many postures we can perform. The question is whether our practice is helping us meet life with greater awareness and steadiness.

Yoga did not take my grief away. It gave me a way to meet it…with respect…without judgement.