Why Everyone Needs a Different Yoga Practice

For years I noticed the same thing in class. People arrived each in their own state, a different energy, a different tension, a different inner weather. Some days the room was scattered and restless. Other days it was heavy and tired. And still we all practised the same thing. Same sequence, same pace, same order.

Something in me kept nagging. Yoga, the version I know, old, wise and deep, always knew that every person is different, and so is the practice that actually meets them. One person needs to wake up the fire. Another needs to support the calm. The right practice for an exhausted mother is not the right practice for an anxious manager. The body in February does not need what the body needs in July.

Yoga Five was born from that question. What if a real yoga practice tuned itself to us, to our own energy, to the actual map each of us was born with?

Where Yoga Five Comes From

Yoga and astrology share a root: since their beginnings, both have worked with elemental energy. Fire, water, air, earth, and a fifth, subtlest element: ether, space, awareness. This set of elements shows up, in different forms, in Vedic tradition, in Greek philosophy, in Chinese medicine, and at the foundation of Western astrology.

Yoga says: the body is a microcosm. Everything that exists in the universe exists in you too.

Astrology says: the pattern of the planets at the moment you were born is a map. It shows what you carry more of, what you carry less of, where your potential lives, and where your blind spot does.

Yoga Five says: let’s connect the two, and work with what they show.

What Are the Elements?

Worth starting with what we actually mean. Instead of definitions, here is how each energy can be felt.

Fire is the energy of movement, transformation and will. Fire wants to create, to lead, to leave a mark. People with dominant fire are passionate, direct, full of drive, and sometimes they overheat. Yoga for fire works with intensity and teaches it restraint: strength without burning out.

Water is the energy of feeling, intuition and depth. Water does not rush, it flows where gravity takes it. People with dominant water are empathetic, deeply sensitive, able to heal, and sometimes they get pulled under. Yoga for water works with flow and grounding. Depth that has an edge.

Air is the energy of thought, connection and communication. Air is curious, quick, always moving. People with dominant air are creative, analytical, social, and sometimes they lose touch with the ground. Yoga for air works with balance and presence, and gives the mind room to return to the body.

Earth is the energy of stability, patience and structure. Earth knows things take time. People with dominant earth are reliable, steady, rooted, and sometimes they harden. Yoga for earth works with movement and release. A steadiness that never freezes.

Ether is the fifth element, the subtlest of all. I don’t mean air or physical space, but awareness itself, stillness inside movement. Ether is the dimension where all the other elements meet, and it is what gives the practice its real depth.

How It Works

Your natal chart is a map of your energies. Yoga is the tool for working with them.

Every person arrives with their own particular nature, a unique ratio and arrangement of the elements. This arrangement is where you start; what you do with it is up to you. Think of it like tending a garden. You have a whole life to let that garden grow, and to tend it.

Sun in Aries (fire), Moon in Scorpio (water) and Ascendant in Gemini (air) describe three layers of your elemental nature: how you shine outward, what you feel inside and how you arrive in the world.

Yoga Five reads that map and translates it into the language of the body.

If fire dominates your chart, your body probably leans towards intense practice, and also needs to learn how to slow down. If water dominates, you instinctively crave deep, flowing movement, but might be missing rooted stability. If air runs high, the mind moves fast and the body can barely keep up, and yoga becomes the bridge back.

Instead of practising what you already know and are good at, you learn to understand your own inner pattern and consciously fill it out, stretch it and balance it.

What Yoga Five Is Not

I want to be honest here, because it matters.

Yoga Five is not horoscope yoga in the sense of “you’re an Aries, so do this.” That is not how it works, and it is not what we want either.

We all carry every element inside us, just in a different ratio, so this is not a system of boxes. You need fire and water, air and earth.

It does not replace medical or therapeutic care. Yoga is a practice, not a diagnosis.

And it is a living concept without one correct interpretation. It grew out of years of practice, observation and questions. And it keeps growing, the way a garden keeps growing once you hold its map in your hands.

Who Yoga Five Is For

It is for you if you enjoy yoga but feel something is missing and would love to go deeper.

Also if your natal chart interests you and you want more than reading predictions: you want to know what to do with it and how to turn it into movement.

And if you want to understand yourself as a person with your own rhythm, energy and nature.

Where To From Here

Yoga Five offers an introductory session. We meet, look at your chart together, go through your energies and your life’s starting tune, and find the practice that fits you.

Yoga Five is about inner work and understanding. We change through life, our energy changes with us, and so does the practice.

I’m also preparing an online workshop and a retreat in Santa Cruz for spring or summer 2027. If you’re interested, write to me.