Dear Yoga Therapist: A Column for the Questions You Didn't Know You Could Ask
Welcome to the column where the questions you don't ask in the middle of class get an answer.
I'm Ronny, yoga therapist and your willing guide into all things body, breath, and being human. Whether you're wondering why your hip flexors are staging a revolt, how to actually apply the Yamas when your coworker drives you nuts, or what on earth the koshas have to do with your anxiety, this is your space to ask.
No question is too small, too strange, or too woo-woo. Bring me your tight IT bands, your sleep trouble, and everything in between. I'll give you my honest, Yoga therapist-informed, occasionally hot take
Dear Reader,
No question landed in my inbox this week, so you're getting whatever's been living in my head instead, which lately is moon phases and what they've taught me about the shape of my own cycles. Here's the piece I keep coming back to. New moon and full moon days aren't just rest days in a lot of lineages. They're built in checkpoints. Two moments a month where the practice isn't about pushing forward but about pausing long enough to ask where you are.
Think about what a full cycle of anything looks like. You start something. You move through it. Things happen, some expected, some not. And then, if you're lucky or intentional, you stop long enough to notice what happened before you charge into the next thing. Most of us skip that last part entirely. We finish one loop, and immediately start the next without ever circling back to integrate what the first one taught us.
Moon days are an invitation to build that pause in on purpose. New moon tends to be quieter, more introspective, a natural moment for setting an intention or planning what's next. Full moon tends to bring things to a head, more visible, more energized, often the moment where you can see clearly what's been building. Used well, the space between them becomes a container: plan at the new moon, watch it unfold, observe what surfaces at the full moon, and then take the days after to actually integrate what you noticed before the next cycle starts pulling you forward again.
On the mat, this can be simple. A slower practice on these days, less about achieving a shape and more about noticing what your body is telling you since the last time you checked in. Where did strength show up. Where did fatigue show up. What changed since the last moon day, even if nothing about your routine did.
Off the mat, the same rhythm applies to basically everything. A project, a relationship, a hard season of parenting, a training program, a business decision. We're often so busy implementing the next thing that we never pause to ask what the last cycle taught us. Moon days are a small, built in permission slip to do that on a schedule instead of waiting for burnout to force the question.
You also don’t need to cancel everything because of the full moon. You just need a recurring moment to stop, look back, and let what you learn land before you move on. The moon just happens to be a generous, twice monthly reminder to do it.
Your Y.T.
Got a question of your own about your practice, your body, or anything in between? I'd love to answer it. Send it my way, anonymously if you'd like, and it might just be next week's column.