Yoga with Michael Solis

Recently, while cooling down in Savasana, I listened as a yoga teacher explained the Vedic astrological reasons why 2025 felt so hard for so many. I don’t pretend to understand the planets’ role in all of this, but it got me thinking…

I reflect on some of the tumult I encountered in 2025…falling backward into change I didn’t choose, and discovering (and rediscovering) something within the realm of the unknown.

If this year was a “dropback” or presented challenges for you, feel free to share your thoughts if you feel comfortable doing so.

The Dropback A year of falling, trusting, rising

My latest Substack post is up, in both text and audio.

It’s about reuniting with a yoga friend I met in Sierra Leone…and our reflections on a maniacal superpower and the strange theater of American life.

Something real, reflective, and raw as the world spirals.

My posts are free for everyone, so feel free to check it out! https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelsolisauthor/p/yoga-a-reunion-and-reflections-on?r=1lcsjb&utm_medium=ios

Yoga, a Reunion, and Reflections on a Maniacal Superpower Deep breath in, deep breath out. We need it.

Lots of yoga happening in June! Come flow, stretch, and breathe with me at YogaSole in Brooklyn. I’d love to see you on the mat. Here’s where I’ll be teaching this month:

🧘‍♂️ Saturday, June 14
• 8:00 AM – Yoga Flow @ Sunset Park Studio
• 9:30 AM – Strength & Stretch @ Sunset Park Studio

🌅 Wednesday, June 19
• 7:30 AM – Yoga Flow @ Windsor Terrace Studio

🌞 Saturday, June 21
• 8:00 AM – Yoga Flow @ Sunset Park Studio
• 9:30 AM – Strength & Stretch @ Sunset Park Studio

🌳 Sunday, June 22
• 9:30 AM – Outdoor Yoga @ Prospect Park

Check out the full schedule on YogaSole’s site: https://yogasole.com/schedule and come on over!

Schedule | Book Your Class Today — YogaSole View and book your yoga classes at YogaSole's convenient Brooklyn locations. Check schedules for Windsor Terrace and Sunset Park. Join our community!

🌿 Exciting news! I’ll be teaching two yoga classes this Monday, May 19th at YogaSole in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. I’d love to see you there.

🧘‍♂️ Gentle Yoga | 10:30–11:30am
Perfect if you’re looking to move slowly, breathe deeply, and reset at the start of the week.

💪 Strength & Stretch Fusion | 12:00–1:00pm
A dynamic blend of movement, stability, and mobility to leave you feeling strong and supple.

📍YogaSole, 254 Windsor Place, Brooklyn, NY 11215
(Just steps from Prospect Park and the F/G trains at 15th St–Prospect Park)

Come for one or both! All levels welcome.

Hi all. I’ll be teaching an Easter Sunday Hatha yoga class at Watamu Treehouse in Kenya. It is one of the most beautiful yoga spaces I have ever seen!

If you’re on the coast and interested in joining, you can find more information here: https://www.treehouse.co.ke/yoga-class-schedule

Getting our yoga on at the Elements retreat at Cockle Point in Sierra Leone. It was a beautiful and restorative weekend after a challenging period for everyone. I hope the retreat will help us settle into healthier patterns that are beneficial to our minds, bodies, and interactions. Until the next experience. 🌴☀️🌊

This weekend (Friday Nov. 13-15) I'm happy to host the Elements Yoga Retreat at Cockle Point in Sierra Leone. I'll be teaching 5 sessions of varying styles (hatha, yin, asthanga), including some deeply relaxing yoga nidra. Lodging is all booked up, but if you are in Sierra Leone and interested in dropping by for a session, let me know!

Happy 6th International Yoga Day to all!
I hope you are finding time today to focus on your practice, whether that is a gentle meditation, holding your favorite asana, or taking an extra-long shavasana.
Normally this time of year we have an international yoga day celebration at the Radison Blu in Freetown. I've always participated, unless I've been out of the country doing a yoga intensive. The event has always been a beautiful way of bringing a diverse and growing yoga community together and sharing what we enjoy most about our practice. But like most events, this one could not go on in 2020.
I don’t think anyone at last year’s event imagined that we’d be grappling with a global pandemic that would change so much. For the past several months our lives have been defined by uncertainty and confusion, hardships and setback, sadness and irretrievable loss. Fear and anxiety have nestled themselves into our minds and bodies, which can make it difficult to focus on anything, let alone a yoga practice.
Yoga gives you license to carve out your “me time,” which is so necessary, even during periods of extended isolation. This doesn’t necessarily mean doing a thousand and one sun salutations, backbends, and contortions. In fact, now might be a better time than most to explore the subtler aspects of yoga that we don’t normally see showcased on social media. There is so much you can do by simply stopping, sitting down, closing your eyes, and breathing.
I know for many people, myself included, yoga has proven fundamental to remaining calm and grounded when everything else seems unstable. Keeping up a practice during a period of tumultuous change is an act of self-assertion. It is the eye within the storm -- a quiet space that allows us to breathe, reflect, and acknowledge the chaos that surrounds us for what it is. Fleeting.
Patanjali's yoga sutras define yoga as "Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah" (Yoga is quelling the turnings of the mind.). I can't remember a time when there were so many turnings, with the thoughts in scattered disarray like the tiny flakes in a shaken snow globe. One of the reasons I continue to practice yoga is because it allows my own turnings to settle. This brings a sense of peace and harmony to my mind, and it helps me to engage more positively with others and the world around me.
This sense of mental calm is something I can observe in the group I’ll be teaching today. They proudly call themselves the LBPs (less bendy people). They are not contortionists, and they know they do not have to be to do yoga. They are a reminder that yoga is much more than stretching. They are the kinds of people that yogis aspire to be – grounded and connected, calm and unshaken, and immersed in a beautiful inner light that they share with the world. It is a wonderful balance to observe and share space with, and I’m happy to surround myself with it on this international yoga day.
Hopefully we can all generate and share more of this in the coming weeks and months to bring about a more peaceful and connected world.

Hi everyone. Instead of teaching yoga this weekend, I’d encourage us all to take some time to follow the recommendations of the Black Lives Matter movement. For allies, this means listening, identifying our blind spots and biases, educating ourselves, and supporting. Lots of great resources here. Feel free to share others.

How You Can Be an Ally to the Black Lives Matter Movement - Great Big Story In the United States, Black people have lived through a long history of racial injustice and senseless, institutionalized violence. This isn’t their battle to fight alone. Here’s how you can help in the fight for equality and racial justice.

Hey all! A few students have requested a class focused on backbends, especially since our habits while at home might not always be the best for our posture and spinal health. Feel free to join!

Yoga for Backbends
Date: Sunday May 17, 2020
Time: 4:00 PM Freetown / 5:00 PM UK/Ireland / 12:00PM EST
Level: Various levels

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85113496022

Hi everyone and welcome to my new yoga page! This space is a way of sharing yoga with students past, present, and future. I'll be sharing links to weekly Zoom yoga classes (normally on the weekends), which I'm hoping can help us all through an uncertain and unnerving time.

For those who are less familiar with my background, I live in Sierra Leone, where I work in development and humanitarian aid. I have been teaching yoga for 10 years, having done my certification with Yoga Vidya Gurukul (https://www.yogapoint.com/) in India. I've taught yoga in many lands (Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, India, Ireland, and the US). My preferred styles are Hatha and Ashtanga (if you aren't familiar with this lingo, I can explain later!), and I've been fortunate to deepen my Ashtanga practice with great teachers, including Mark Robberds during annual summers intensives in Bali.

I've shared yoga with people from so many walks of life and backgrounds, and I believe it is a fundamental tool for healing, grounding, and connecting. Yoga has enabled me to create a sense of community wherever I live, and though my in-person classes are now cancelled due to Covid, I'm excited about developing this sense of community virtually.

Thanks to those who have joined the Zoom classes to date and helped support great causes through yoga, including the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone.

Any questions? Just shout! And if not, welcome to the page. I look forward to sharing more yoga together soon. 🧘‍♂️🤸‍♀️☀️

Yoga Point - Yoga Poses, Pranayama, Meditation, Lifestyle, yoga therapy