Everything You Need To Know About Traditional Tantra Yoga

I’d trained as a yoga teacher in the Western tradition, but it wasn’t until I lived in an Indian ashram and practiced traditional tantra yoga that I truly came to my deepest understanding and expression of what yoga is.

In the shala (a Sanskrit word meaning "home") in India, tantra yoga classes started with students lying on the floor, eyes closed. We would wait until the teacher came into the room, only knowing to start by listening to their words from the back of the room. They did not introduce themselves, nor did they explain anything about what was going to happen, or how to execute the asanas. They simply spoke the words—many of them unfamiliar to me.

At first I was confused and a little angry because I didn’t know what was going on. I had to look at the other students to see what some of the asanas were. Over time I began to find peace in the voice resonating from the back of the room. I found freedom in being able to close my eyes and focus fully on my practice without the distraction of a teacher’s cues.

What I learned over time was that this form of yoga is more a moving meditation than a physical workout. Traditional tantra yoga focuses on internal connection and reflection, with physical flexibility, strength, and prior knowledge of the postures taking a backseat to the primary intention of self-knowledge and empowerment.

I stayed at that ashram for quite a while, eventually becoming certified to teach this style of traditional tantra yoga. I am now back in my Western home, where practicing yoga usually means racing through traffic, running into a studio at the last minute, and performing whatever sequence at whatever pace our teacher has chosen.

Upon returning to mainstream yoga classes, I was confronted by how much emphasis is placed on the teacher. The teacher stands at the front of the room, introduces themselves, and leads you through a sequence of poses that they created paired with a playlist that they made. There is nothing wrong with this kind of practice. Yoga is about taking the journey that you need, and no one else can tell you what that is.

But having experienced another kind of yoga, I found myself asking, “Is this really my practice? Do I feel empowered by following, or do I need to cultivate personal freedom and strength in a different way?”

When I lead tantra yoga classes, I am there to support and gently guide my students. I help them rediscover their personal power and freedom and receive all the pleasure that yoga has to offer. The role of a tantric yoga instructor is to encourage you to discover what feels good to you in each moment of your practice and trust that.

In tantric yoga, your instructor is tasked with creating a space in which you can truly connect with yourself—mind, body, and spirit. A longtime student of mine once said, “I love coming to tantra, because I don’t have to do yoga; I can just be yoga.” That is exactly the point.

In tantra classes, the teacher urges you to relax and simply listen. As the teacher, I will lead you into a yogic state—moving body and breath. From that point, there is no right or wrong. We will guide you in proper alignment and form if a posture might injure you, but we honor the agency of each practitioner to choose what is best for them.

Tantric yoga will lead to the dissolution of any mental and physical barriers to growth.

What are you thinking about before going into a backbend? “My wrists hurt; I’m not strong enough; I’m too old.” What are you feeling? Panic? Fear? Pain?

Instead, those things will be natural results of becoming intimately aware of and connected to our minds and bodies. One of my teachers says that “our bodies can do everything they have ever learned. We just need to get out of their way.” We have evolved to keep our bodies in flight-or-fight mode, because we throw stressor after stressor at them. We’ve gotten to the point where we feel like we have to justify or apologize for relaxing. We force ourselves ourselves to keep moving, creating, spending, and using our energy until we simply cannot anymore.

Tantric yoga will prime your mind and body to receive and experience pleasure. But note, we're not talking about sexual pleasure here. (Though, separately, there are some more sexual tantric yoga poses for couples and regular yoga poses for better sex, if that's what you're into.)

Tantric yoga will help you unlearn the conditioning you've faced all your life. In the West, we are taught at a very young age to fall in line, to speak only when called on, to move only when permission has been granted. We are taught to color within the lines, not to deviate from the rest of the group. Traditional tantra yoga helps us access the strength within us to follow our own paths.