Becky Farbstein Yoga

Tis the Season for Yoga at Home.

My holiday gift for you is three yoga practices that you can do anywhere, anytime, to help you survive the next few weeks.

#1: Downward Facing Dog at the table/kitchen counter. AKA: oh f*ck I burned the turkey pose.

#2: sukhasana in the closet
AKA: I can't believe xenophobic Uncle Raymond actually just said that.

#3: lion's breath into the refrigerator
AKA: if Aunt Miranda asks about the calories in the dessert one more time, I'm going to stuff this mince pie down her throat.

Happy Christmas everyone. Keep breathing.

I'm approaching my final week of teaching for 2025 and reflecting on the past year. Social media values and elevates big flashy moments. Accomplishments. Successes. Yoga isn't like that. My professional highlights, and the things I value most about my job, go largely unseen and unpictured. The thing that motivates me to teach, week in and week out, is the quiet consistency of my students. It is getting to observe and help guide a practice for people who are there every Tuesday at lunch or every Saturday before the rest of the world gets going. It is the students who know how to take rest, the ones who skip every vinyasa, the ones who know which variations of poses are best for their bodies and their lives, the ones who keep building skills without grasping for shapes.

So thank you to everyone who has practiced and trained with me this year. Thank you for being there, behind the scenes, and completely off camera, doing the hard, unglamorous, repetitive, sometimes very boring work of self-study and self-inquiry. I'm so lucky to get to be part of this community.

If I don't see you in the next week, I hope you have a restful and happy holiday season. See you in 2026 for, let's be honest, pretty much more of the same. 🫡

I'm very much a "plan ahead" sort of person but I acknowledge (and even celebrate) those of you who are last minute kind of people. So if you are thinking that actually maybe you do want to get the f*ck out of London for two nights, it's not too late to join me and an absolutely stellar crew of folks for a weekend of yoga, food, rest, and quiet away from the city next weekend (7-9 November). DM me if you are reading this and thinking "yes." 🙏🏼

The number one question I get when people are considering enrolling in a yoga teacher training programme is "Do you think I'm good enough? I can't do a handstand."

It's not about the handstand. It's never been about the handstand.

To teach yoga, you have to realise it's not about you anymore. That's why we don't focus very much on our own asana practices in my 200-hour YTT programme. We spend more time learning about the history and philosophy of these rich traditions we call yoga. We build the skills and confidence to stand in front of a room of people and confidently lead a yoga practice. We learn about the diversity and range of human anatomy and injuries so we put ourselves in our students' shoes and support their practices with empathy, intelligence, and care. We study pedagogy so we can craft yoga classes that maximise our students' potential to learn and develop their understanding of yoga. And in the end, we finally recognise that, through all of this study and inquiry, we have deepened our own yoga practices on and off the mat to a level that goes so much deeper than whether or not you can hold a handstand.

Curious? Eager to learn more?

Join our Open Day on 27 September at to get all your questions answered.

Last summer I deleted all these hell apps from my phone and it was so good that I'm doing it again. Check studio schedules for when I'm teaching in the coming months, and email me if you are keen on the retreat. I wish you a summer with abundant gelato and fresh air, a few great books, and fewer hours spent chained to your phone.

I don't think you ever stop needing to get on the mat, but I do think that many people's relationship to the physically of yoga changes over their lifetime. I used to truly need the physical practice to get grounded and shake off the chaos. Extremely dynamic, challenging asana practice was what allowed me to have the experience of getting out of my head, and because it facilitated that experience of calming the mind chatter, it was effective yoga. For me, the combination of getting older and also finding other physical outlets for moving my body in challenging ways means that I now use the time on the mat to do what my teacher describes as "managing the human experience." Observe the starting point, regulate the breath and mind's reactions to some level of physical challenge, and then ultimately, get still.

All experiences of yoga are equally valid and good if they offer us an opportunity to get out of our own way so we can be present and responsive to the fluctuations of life, without giving into extreme reactivity.

That's it. That's yoga.

CALLING ALL YOGA TEACHERS

Have you been teaching for a few years and now you're starting to consider some additional training? Look no further. and I have put together an advanced training curriculum at that includes training to develop your practical teaching skills including class planning, sequencing, assisting, and applied anatomy, as well as the space to dive deeper into advanced yoga philosophy and issues of inclusion and accessibility. Between the two of us, we have more than 40 years experience practising, teaching, and training yoga teachers. We're confident there's really no other advanced training quite like ours.

We'd love for you to join us for a free online Q+A and information session on April 7th @ 7:30pm. All information and links to book in profile.

I've been lucky enough to know for almost 15 years I think? I first met her when she was MY yoga teacher, before I was even thinking about doing my first yoga teacher training. And since then, I've been lucky enough to call her my teacher, my friend, and my collaborator. She is a fearless leader, a generous and knowledgeable teacher, and a model of living a selfless, yoga-centric life. In a lot of ways, we couldn't be more different, but what unites us is our love and respect both for each other and for yoga.

For all of these reasons and more, I'm thrilled to be joining forces with Erin once again to co-lead 300 hour advanced teacher training course, which will begin in the autumn. We're offering a free, online Q+A session the evening of 20 June, and we'd love to have you join us so we can tell you more about the structure of the course, the curriculum, and answer all of your burning questions.

Red lipstick totally optional. 💄

Booking link in profile! Come along!

So many of us are first drawn to yoga in hopes of increasing the mobility, flexibility, and strength of our physical bodies. It was definitely what hooked me nearly two decades ago. However, all these years later, I can see that the practice, in all its iterations, including asana, is actually based on skillfulness, not innate or acquired physical ability. We become more skilled in using and moving our bodies through the essential practice of simply showing up on the mat with consistency and discipline. This is both the foundation of the practice and the greatest challenge it presents. Can we get on the mat for the sake of practising, and can we use our time there to notice as much as we possibly can, without chasing shapes? This is such a monumental task, with so many layers, that most of us have to commit simply to this for our entire lives.

But that's the yoga.

I re-installed Instagram just to share this photo because I'm so damn proud of this crew. These 11 incredible women committed a whole year of their lives to training to become yoga teachers, and they also stuck it out with me and my never-ending stream of sarcasm, which is quite the accomplishment. And I'm so proud to share that they are all now shiny, new, fantastic yoga teachers.

Check them out, give them a follow on the 'gram, and look out for them teaching community classes at in Peckham and Streatham over the coming months.

Never-ending hugs, coffee, and love for this team. Taylor, Jason and I are so proud of you all. 😜