Transformational Stretching

by Jessica Girija Jewell

After a yoga class one day, a friend said, “That was some transformational stretching.” 

The phrase made me laugh, and the more I use it, the more I like it. Maybe it’s because it holds a kind of truth — yoga is stretching, but also something far more meaningful. I think of it as a way to approach the practice — where something as ordinary as a stretch can open into something sacred.

The Practice Begins

Most of us show up for yoga practice a bit scattered. Our lives are full — with work, people, errands, traffic — and we carry that momentum with us. That’s why I like to begin my personal practice and my classes simply: in balasana (child’s pose) or adho mukha savasana (downward-facing relaxation pose).

Before we rise, we root. 

Before we stretch, we settle.

The first moments of practice are a chance to connect with ourselves — to arrive on the mat, to feel the sensations in the body, and to notice the rhythm of the breath.

The body will often settle before the mind. Once it does, we can begin to notice our thoughts. They may be racing, replaying conversations from the past, or leaping toward ones in the future. That’s natural — that’s the nature of the mind.

In yoga philosophy, the mind is understood to have layers, each with its own role. The manomayakosha, or thinking mind, gathers impressions and reacts to them. Beneath the surface activity of the thinking mind lies a subtler layer — the jnanamayakosha, the discerning mind that watches quietly and guides us toward wisdom. As the breath deepens and the thinking mind settles, that subtler layer begins to surface.

The Path of Transformation

Once the discerning mind surfaces, we’re ready to move. We organize our bodies through the bones, sensing how the skeleton shapes the body when one bone aligns with another.

From this foundation, breath and body begin to play together. The breath initiates movement, and movement guides the breath through the body. Inhale, raise the arms. Exhale, lower them down. However the body moves, the breath travels to different places within it, opening new spaces and new layers of awareness.

Here, we ease into the essence of transformational stretching — where movement becomes mindful, and mindfulness gives rise to change. Moving slowly allows us to stay yoked together, to remain organized in the pose, to engage the muscles, and to feel the subtle lengthening that happens when the body is infused with breath.

We transform not by striving for a shape, but by staying present with what’s unfolding as we move toward it. In this way, the asana — the meeting of body and breath — becomes a teacher, revealing where we hold tension and how we might begin to transform it.

The Inner Stretch: Sound as Transformation

There are many practices that initiate transformation. The ancient Vedic traditions — the ones that preceded the age of postures — used mantra to stretch and transform the inner field: to quiet the senses, steady the mind, and attune the body to subtler vibrations of consciousness.

If you’d like to explore mantra as a way to transform your body — to remember it as sacred ground itself — I invite you to join me for a special evening immersion:

🕉️ The Body as Sacred Ground 

📅 Saturday, November 8 | 6:00–9:00 p.m. 

📍 Yoga Together Lincoln, 3905 S. 48th St., Lincoln, NE 

💰 $75 (If this practice speaks to you but the cost is a barrier, please reach out. We’ll find an amount that works.)

In this three-hour workshop, we’ll explore Laghunyasa, an ancient chant that divinizes the body through sound and visualization. Traditionally, this mantra was used to prepare the body for deeper spiritual practice. When chanted over time, it becomes a quiet companion — a way of remembering who we already are: sparks of the divine, adventuring through time and space. It invites us to relate to life as the sacred meeting the sacred.

There will be no asana practice — only the yoga of sound. We’ll chant together, listen deeply, and experience how mantra can reshape the way we relate to our bodies.

Each breath, each asana, each mantra stretches us to remember who we are and why we’re here. This remembrance transforms our experience of life itself — helping us grow a little wiser, a little kinder, and a little more useful to the world around us. Let’s keep practicing, together.