First door · Āsana · Through the body
Yogāsanas — Eighty-four ways to align
Postures held slowly and consciously, linked to the breath, without forcing or comparison. Not stretching, and not a competition: ways of aligning the body.
What it is
Of the countless postures a body can take, eighty-four have been identified as yogāsanas, yoga postures in the strict sense. The tradition presents them not as stretching exercises, but as ways of aligning the body.
This is what sets them apart from stretching or sport. You do not force, and you do not compare: it is the opposite of “the harder, the better”. The postures are held gently, because forcing the body teaches the mind to force as well. In the Yoga Sūtra (II.46), Patañjali defines posture in three words, and flexibility is not one of them: “Sthira-sukham āsanam” — steady, and at ease.
It is not about turning the body this way and that, but about making it stable, whatever the posture; the mind follows. What holds without effort was first held with attention. A posture is even described as a “meditation in motion”.
What it asks of you
- Flexibility
- None: it may come with practice, but it is not a precondition.
- Attitude
- A willingness to go slowly, without forcing or comparing.
- Stomach
- Empty, for the body’s comfort during the postures.
- A teacher
- A teacher first sees what you cannot, and adjusts before a misalignment settles in.
- Regularity
- A mandala of forty to forty-eight days: this is where the reported changes appear.
If you have pain or an injury, or are pregnant, tell us before the first session, and talk to your doctor. Many practices can be adapted — a posture is prepared differently, another waits its turn — and some are not advised during pregnancy or in certain conditions.
What practitioners report
Those who practise the Yogāsanas report flexibility and, many of them, a healthier back. They also describe a calmer, clearer mind, concentration that holds better and steadier emotional balance — what our sources sum up as a “chemistry of health, joy and stability”.
Over the course of a mandala, several of them notice a different relationship with the body: effort drops to what the posture asks for, the shoulders can come down of their own accord, and the body becomes a support again rather than a worry. These are experiences, reported as such, not clinical evidence.
We present these practices as tools for prevention and wellbeing — not as medical treatment.
Starting at the studio
At the studio on place Monge, the Yogāsanas are learnt from a teacher over a short programme, after an introductory session of Upa Yoga. The room is kept quiet on purpose, so that what happens in it can be heard.
The path
- Begin where you are. An introductory session of Upa Yoga. You need no flexibility, no equipment and no belief — only an empty stomach and an hour.
- Learn it properly, in person. The full form is transmitted by a teacher over a short programme. The geometry is subtle; learnt from a book or a screen, a small error becomes a habit.
- Practise for one mandala. A cycle of forty to forty-eight consecutive days — about the time a new alignment needs to settle into the body. This is where the reported changes appear.
- Go further, or simply keep up the practice. Deeper practices, silent intensives, or the Agora — where the same attention is turned outward, onto questions no one can answer alone.
Hear about the opening sessions
The place
- Address
- 50 rue de la Clef — Place Monge, 75005 Paris See the map
- Schedule
- The timetable is being drawn up. See the schedule
- For a first session
- An empty stomach, and an hour. No flexibility, no equipment, no belief.
- Contact
- bonjour@studioetre.fr
+33 6 52 30 71 00 · WhatsApp