Exploring the roots, purpose, and transformative potential of yoga through the lens of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. Each week, we dive into a teaching shared by yoga teacher Ann Schreppers, uncovering how ancient wisdom translates into modern practice and how yoga can become a living philosophy.
In this final part of our Yoga Philosophy series, Ann explores the practice of living from the heart — how cultivating friendliness, compassion, joy, and equanimity brings clarity, softens the ego, and allows us to act from presence in both yoga and daily life.
Sutra 1.33 — Maitrī karuṇā muditā upekṣāṇām sukha duḥkha puṇya apuṇya viṣayāṇām bhāvanātaś citta prasādanam
“Tranquility of mind comes by cultivating friendliness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.”
Practicing from the Heart
The heart is the center of our spiritual being — the meeting point of courage, compassion, and connection. When we live and practice from this space, every movement and breath can be(come) an act of love.
Patanjali reminds us that peace is cultivated through the qualities of the heart. Friendliness toward ourselves and others, compassion for suffering, joy for the happiness of others, and equanimity in all circumstances. Together, these qualities calm the mind and expand our awareness.
When we act from love instead of fear, the same actions carry a completely different vibration. Presence purifies intent. It turns even the smallest gesture into something meaningful. More important than what things look like for the external world, it’s what it feels like in the intimacy of your own witnessing presence. Why do we do what we do? And does it restrict or liberate you?
Awareness and the Ego
The ego is sometimes misunderstood as something to suppress, yet it is simply a part of being human. Yoga invites us not to destroy it but to integrate it with awareness. When we meet the ego with compassion, it begins to soften, and we create space for forgiveness — both for ourselves and for others. We feel / feed the growing urge to liberate ourselves from burdens and excess weight and pressure in the name of love.
Through practice, we learn to see where the ego drives us and where there is space for the heart to lead us. The moment we choose presence over reaction, awareness over control and mostly internal ownership over external conflict, we begin to live in alignment with truth and personal power.
Yoga purifies intent by being present. This presence allows us to live with more honesty, to speak with kindness and to act from clarity. Each moment is a new opportunity, to release burdens of the past and ignite renewal and beauty in the present.
Living from Love
Vinyasa yoga can remind us to flow with awareness and to move through life as a living meditation. When each breath becomes conscious, we recognize that love is an intrinsic state of awareness. We meet life in love - all aspects within and around us.
To practice from the heart is to live with openness. It is to remember that peace does not come from avoiding challenges but from learning to staying present within them. The more we practice (with) love, the more we become it.
Returning to Essence
As this journey through a few of the Yoga Sutras comes to a close, what remains is simplicity. The practice, at its core, is about remembrance — remembering our true nature, our innate peace, and our capacity for love.
Each breath is an opportunity to return home to the heart. To meet life as it is, with awareness and grace, no longer projecting pains. A beautiful masterpiece as well as a work in progress. May love be -always- the highest intention and offering..
In this remembering, yoga becomes more than movement. It is an art and a way of living — a continuous offering of love in action. A choice to cultivate and create … to meet yourself, life & others with a growing ability to be kind and appreciate.
It’s hard to put into words .. the true potency of what this practice holds.
Let’s say there is a difference in the way we feel before & after our practice … The power of getting to know the world as it feels when we’re in our center. This is what you want to get familiarized with … This state is how we can truly honor our life as a gift and each choice and action a contribution to it.
We hope to have awakened a spark, to bring heartfelt intention to the way you engage with life as a practice.
Practice with Ann
Listen
Connect
Ann Schreppers is a lifelong bodyworker, and yoga teacher devoted to personal and collective transformation. Her journey began in classical ballet, where her love for movement and the human experience first took root. For over a decade, she has shared the gift of yoga and heartfelt leadership across the world, in communities in Central-America and Kenya, where she lives partly. Through her platform, Conscious Corner, Ann creates programs, retreats, and teacher trainings that weave together movement, mindfulness, and purpose. With an academic background in Public Policy, she is passionate about fostering well-being through structures of self-awareness and conscious living — inspiring others to reconnect with their inner truth and make an impact for people and the planet.
Instagram: @ann.schreppers
Website: consciouscorner.be
Upcoming retreats: consciouscorner.be/retreats
Upcoming trainings: consciouscorner.be/sacred-sequence-trainings
Read more:
→ Part I: The Essence of Yoga Sutra
→ Part II: The Causes of Suffering and Energetic Awareness
→ Part III: Vinyāsa & Asana as Tools
