Stress feels different today than it did years ago. For many people, it’s no longer something that comes and goes — it’s part of daily life. People are carrying more, moving faster, and spending less time listening to what their bodies are trying to say.
Those of us who work as yoga teachers, therapists, coaches, and guides see this every day. Clients aren’t just looking for relief; they’re looking for a way to meet their lives with more awareness, steadiness, and choice. More and more, they’re asking for approaches that include the body as a source of information and truth.
As Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy moves into its 40th year of training and practice, I find myself reflecting on what this work has always been about. From the beginning, it has been an embodied path — bringing together movement, breath, awareness, and compassionate inquiry. Not to fix people, but to help them listen more deeply and reconnect with their own inner guidance.
At this stage of my life, my sense of why feels clearer. I hold the Bodhisattva vow as a living commitment — to continue my own growth and learning, and to find ways to be of service that are honest, grounded, and humane. For me, awakening has never been separate from relationship, and whatever understanding we come to only matters if it can be shared in ways that are accessible and real.
Rather than adding more techniques or complexity, I’m drawn to distilling what matters most — especially when working with stress, transition, and inner conflict. One of the core understandings in Phoenix Rising is that change happens through relationship with experience, not control over it. When we learn to befriend the body, notice what’s happening, and allow experience to be here, stress often begins to shift on its own. If you’d like to explore this directly, here’s a short practice you can try:
A Simple Embodied Practice
- Take a moment to pause. Sit or stand in a way that feels comfortable. Let your attention settle.
- Bring your awareness to one place in your body where sensation is noticeable — maybe your feet, your belly, your chest, or your hands. There’s nothing to change. Just notice what’s there.
- See if you can name the sensation simply: tight, warm, heavy, moving, quiet. Let the words be light, more like acknowledgments than explanations.
- Allow this experience to be here for a few breaths, just as it is.
- Then, gently ask yourself:
What does this part of me need right now?
You don’t have to come up with an answer. Even listening is enough.
Practices like this may seem small, but over time they build trust — trust in the body, trust in experience, and trust in the wisdom that arises when we slow down and listen.
As stress continues to shape our collective lives, I believe embodied approaches will become increasingly important — not as techniques, but as ways of being present, relating honestly, and responding with care.
For me, this moment isn’t about teaching something new. It’s about refining how we share what we already know, so it can be lived more fully — in service of clarity, compassion, and connection.
Michael Lee founded Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy in 1986 and has been doing this work around the globe for over 40 years. If you are interested in what part of his work – one-on-one sessions, group classes, joining the community, or professional training – might be most supportive for you at this time, book a free discovery call with Michael HERE.
