Becoming Our Own Teacher: Reflections from the 2026 IYNAUS Convention

A collection of reflections from the Adeline Yoga Community 

Adeline Yoga teachers, staff, and students recently gathered with the wider Iyengar Yoga community for the 2026 IYNAUS Convention in Philadelphia.  Twenty-five Adeline Yoga teachers and students made the trip out to study with Abhijata Iyengar.

There was something extraordinary about practicing, learning, sharing meals, and spending time with so many people devoted to the study of yoga. The trip was so incredible we wondered if it really happened – or was it the most delicious dream?

The great news is it did actually happen. And the value of this convention continued to unfold in what we brought home — the questions, insights, and teachings that we are unpacking in our own practice and lives.

We the Adeline Yoga folks who attended have been reflecting on two questions:

What was an important takeaway from the convention?

What is a memory you will hold close to your heart?

Although each person responded from their own place as a student or teacher, a common theme emerged: the importance of taking responsibility for our learning and gradually becoming our own teacher.

Guidance Is the Beginning

In an Iyengar Yoga class, instruction can be detailed and precise. A teacher may guide us through the actions of the feet, legs, pelvis, spine, shoulders, and breath, helping us experience a pose with greater clarity.

That guidance gives us a foundation from which to practice. But there are also moments when the teacher becomes quiet and leaves us space to observe, remember, and respond for ourselves.

Alison May reflected on this movement from instruction toward independence: “When we are guided step by step (nostrils relaxed by hip and thigh rolling out by shoulder blades up and in) we are taking it all in, adjusting, learning. But when our teachers are quiet and give us the space to trust ourselves and make those adjustments from memory (muscle memory or remembering the teacher’s voice) we also learn to trust ourselves and gain our independence in the practice.”

This is one of the deeper purposes of yoga instruction. A teacher does not simply tell us what to do forever. Through consistent study, we begin to develop our own ability to see, feel, remember, and make informed choices.

As Alison observed, this learning does not remain limited to the yoga mat: “Sometimes you must face things unsupported and trust yourself to make the way through.”

Taking Responsibility for Our Learning

Laura Volsansky returned from the convention with several teachings that stayed with her: “Don’t let past experiences dictate today’s actions. Why do we wait for someone to tell us what to do? Take responsibility for yourself. You can’t teach something you’ve never done before. Teach from experience. Want to learn the actions? Stay in the pose for 10 minutes!”

Her reflection points toward an important part of the Iyengar method: understanding develops through direct experience.

We may hear an instruction many times, but its meaning often changes when we stay, observe, and allow the pose to teach us. Practice asks for more than repetition. It asks for attention.

For Inbal Meron, the convention offered a renewed understanding of what responsibility can mean: “To take responsibility for myself, my practice, my healing, and my learning. To really trust myself and to refine what it means to see, feel, and hear myself. And to be disciplined enough to create and protect the space needed for that.”

Self-trust does not mean that we no longer need teachers or community. It means that we begin to participate more fully in our own learning.

We listen to instructions, but we also listen inwardly. We become more attentive to what is happening in the body, the breath, and the mind. Over time, we learn to distinguish between habit and observation, fear and discernment, effort and strain.

The Practice Is the Point

Yoga students can easily become focused on achieving a particular result.

We may want the hand to reach the floor, the leg to lift higher, or the pose to look a certain way. Goals can give us direction, but they can also distract us from what we are learning along the way.

Andy Jamieson attended the convention online.  He shared how the teachings on vairagya, or non-attachment, changed his relationship to Parivrtta Parsvakonasana: “I’ve had my eye on that Parivrtta Parsvakonasana prize of turning my trunk far enough around to reach the arm all the way to the ground. No. The practice turns the trunk and reaches the ground, but the prize is not the point. The practice is the point.”

Andy’s reflection reminds us that yoga is not a collection of poses to conquer. What matters is the quality of attention we bring to the process. Are we observing? Are we learning? Are we able to remain present without becoming attached to a particular outcome?

Andy offered another image from the convention: “Freedom is like Wi-Fi: it’s all around everywhere. You don’t need a password. And you don’t even have to know how it works. The path of yoga connects you up to it — automatically.”

The path of yoga may not always feel automatically free, but practice continually gives us opportunities to loosen our attachment to results and experience a different kind of freedom.

Becoming Our Own Teacher

For Sandy Moller, the convention renewed her appreciation for the depth of the Iyengar method: “Listening to Abhijata teach reminded me that there is still so much to explore within even the most familiar poses. More importantly, she returned me to something I have always known deep inside: that my work is to become my own teacher.”

Becoming our own teacher does not mean believing that we already know everything. It asks for the opposite. It asks us to remain curious enough to keep looking, humble enough to keep learning, and disciplined enough to return to the practice again and again. Sandy continued: “The answers I seek are not outside of me. My practice is to go more deeply into my own body, my own questions, my own challenges, and allow the practice itself to reveal what needs to be learned.”

Iyengar Yoga gives students a structure for this kind of exploration. Through alignment, sequencing, timing, repetition, and the intelligent use of props, we learn how to study ourselves within the poses.

The teacher offers direction. The method offers tools. The student must then observe what those instructions reveal.

Learning in Community

Although much of yoga involves personal observation, we do not practice alone.

Sandy shared that one of the memories she will hold close was simply being surrounded by people who care deeply about yoga:

“There was something powerful about sharing practice, study, laughter, and meals together. It reminded me that yoga is not just something we do on the mat. It is a lifelong path of learning, observation, and transformation.”

This sense of community was an important part of the convention for many of us.

Students and teachers arrived with different bodies, experiences, questions, and levels of understanding. Yet we gathered around a shared commitment to practice and learning.

For sure we returned to Adeline Yoga energized and grateful, carrying new questions as well as new inspiration.

Bringing the Teachings Home

The convention may be over, but the work of integrating what we learned is just beginning.

The teachings will continue to unfold in our home practices, in the way we approach familiar poses, in the questions we bring to class, and in the way Adeline teachers support their students.

For new students, becoming your own teacher does not mean that you must already know what to do. It begins much more simply.

It begins by noticing whats happening inside and around our body.

What changes when you press through the feet? What happens when you use a prop for support? Can you observe the breath without trying to control it? Can you recognize when effort becomes strain? Can you remember one instruction and explore it again?

These small acts of attention are part of learning to trust your own experience.

For experienced students and teachers, the same process continues. Familiar poses reveal new information. Long-held assumptions are questioned. Understanding becomes more refined through practice, reflection, and direct experience.

We came home from Philadelphia feeling joyful, connected, and inspired by the depth of the Iyengar Yoga tradition.

Perhaps it was not a dream after all.

Perhaps it was a reminder to keep practicing, keep observing, and keep becoming more fully responsible for our own learning.