Welcome to the Yamas & Niyamas Book Circle 🍂📖
November 6, 2025, through March 26, 2026
This fall and winter, I invite you into a gentle, soulful exploration of The Yamas & Niyamas—ancient teachings that offer timeless insight into how we live, love, and relate to ourselves and the world.
Rooted in yogic philosophy, these ten principles aren’t rules or rigid paths—they’re compassionate invitations. Doorways. They meet you where you are, and they move with you. Whether you’re spiritual, curious, questioning, or grounded in another tradition, this book honors all beliefs and welcomes all hearts.
Together, we’ll reflect on what it means to live with more presence, alignment, and integrity—whatever that looks like for you. Each gathering is a space for shared wisdom, honest reflection, and nourishing conversation. You are welcome to bring your stories, your truth, your lived experience.
Come as you are, and let’s explore what it means to live a skillful, fulfilling life—one breath, one page, one beautiful step at a time. 💛
Let this be the season you choose you.
📘 Why This Book?
In Deborah's Own Words
“It doesn't need to take a death sentence for us to change. We have the choice to burst forth boldly and claim our lives in this very moment, and yoga's ten guidelines, the Yamas & Niyamas, can support that very leap into the life that we seek. Under their guidance, the turbulence and drama that are often a familiar part of our life begin to disappear.
The result of a skillfully lived life is nothing less than joy. Not the kind that comes when things are going our way and disappears just as quickly, but the kind that bubbles up from within. The kind of joy that comes from our own sense of mastery in life that no matter what life brings, we are ready. Maybe there is nothing to figure out ahead of time, there is only a life to live well ... or not.
Which are you choosing for yourself?" ~ Deborah, page 13
Tell me more about
the Yamas & Niyamas
"The Yamas & Niyamas may be thought of as guidelines, tenets, ethical disciplines, precepts, or restraints and observances. I often think of them as jewels, because they are the rare gems of wisdom that give direction to a well-lived and joyful life. In yogic philosophy, these jewels sit as the first two limbs of the 8-fold path." p 15
The Yamas
(Focus: Fall into Winter)
The Niyamas
(Focus: Winter to Equinox)
Ahimsa (Nonviolence) is the foundation to all other guidelines. It is a stance of right relationship with others and with self that is neither self-sacrifice nor self-aggrandizement. This becomes an active practice of love and compassion for yourself and for the world.
Saucha (Purity) is an invititation to cleanse our bodies, our attitudes, an dour actions. It asks us to clean up our act so we can be more available to the qualities in life that we are seeking. This becomes a living alignment with our relationships to others, with the task at hand, and with ourselves.
Satya (Truthfulness) partners with nonviolence. The marriage of these two guidelines creates a powerful dance between two seeming opposites. We can appreciate this statement when we begin to practice speaking our truth without causing harm to others.
Santosha (Contentment) can only be found in acceptance and appreciation of what is in the moment. The more we learn to leave "what is" alone, the more contentment will quietly and steadily find us.
Asteya (Nonstealing) guides our attempts and tendencies to look outward for satisfaction. We steal from the earth, we steal from others, and we steal from ourselves. We steal from our own opportunity to grow ourselves into the person who has the right to have the life they want.
Tapas (Self-Discipline) is anything that impacts us to change. This guideline is an invitation to purposefully seek out refining your own strength of character and it asks, "can you trust the heat? Can you trust the path of change itself?"
Brahmacharya (Nonexcess) implies an awareness of sacredness in all our actions and an attentiveness to each moment that moves us into a stance of holiness. From this place of sacredness, the boundary is set to leave excess behind and live within the limits of enough.
Svadhyaya (Self-Study) is a pursuit of knowing ourselves, studying what drives us and what shapes us because these things literally are the cause of the lives we are living. Self-study asks us to look at the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and realize that these stories create the reality of our lives.
Aparigraha (Nonpossessiveness) reminds us that clinging to people and material objects only weighs us down and makes life a heavy and disappointing experience. When we practice letting go, we move ourselves towards freedom and an enjoyment of life that is expansive and fresh.
Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender) reminds us that life knows what to do better than we do. Through devotion, trust, and active engagement, we can receive each moment with an open heart. Rather than paddling upstream, surrender is an invitation to go with the underlying current, enjoy the ride, and take in the view.
What Others are Saying?
🌱 Pricing with Care
This gathering is offered with a sliding scale. Choose what’s right for you:
Full Course ~ $120 (regularly $132)
Individual Drop-In Reciprocity Invitation:
-
$12 (individual drop-in, recommended min to support Jen.)
-
$1 (if you’re experiencing financial hardship.)
-
$25 (have a little extra? Support another’s place here.)
Your presence is enough. And your contribution, at any level, is valued.