The Choices That Shape Us: Yoga, Change & the Five Elements

There is something about this time of year that always makes me pause…as if something is telling me to slow down, to digest and reflect.

Perhaps it is the changing light, the cooler air, or the way nature seems to quietly surrender to what is coming. When I walk outside at this time of year, I find myself noticing the trees a little more. The leaves that were once so green and full are beginning to change colour, and slowly, almost without drama, they begin to let go.

Nature never seems to question whether it should change. The tree doesn’t hold onto its leaves because it is afraid of what winter might bring. The flowers don’t try to keep blooming simply because they enjoyed the summer. There is an innate wisdom in nature that seems to understand when it is time to grow, when it is time to flourish, when it is time to release and when it is time to rest.

And perhaps we are not so different.

As I have been moving through this season of my own life, I have been thinking a lot about choices and change, and how deeply the two are connected.

We often talk about change as something that happens to us. The seasons change, circumstances change, relationships change, our bodies change, our lives change. Some changes we welcome with open arms, while others arrive uninvited and ask us to find a completely new way of being.

But somewhere within all of this is something very powerful to notice, we still have a choice in how we meet the change.

Change begins the moment we choose differently.

Sometimes that choice is big and obvious. At other times it is so small that nobody else would even notice. It might be choosing to pause before reacting, choosing to speak honestly or choosing to walk away from something that no longer feels right. It might simply be choosing to see something through a different lens.

I have come to believe that every choice we make is in some way, a small vote for the life we are becoming.

And I love that thought…because it reminds us that we don’t need to have everything figured out before we begin. We don’t need to know exactly where the path is taking us. Sometimes the next chapter of our life doesn’t begin with certainty at all. It begins with a quiet inner knowing and the courage to take one step.

The wisdom of the five elements

This Autumn on Soulful Sunday’s we are exploring the five elements in yoga and life.
The elements offer us such a beautiful mirror for life. They remind us that we are not separate from nature. We carry Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space within us, and each one has something different to teach us.

We began with Earth: Prithvi.

Earth reminds us to become grounded, to feel supported, to nourish ourselves and to remember that we have somewhere to stand. There are times in life when we need roots more than wings. We need to slow down, come home to ourselves, and allow ourselves to be held.

Then came Water: Jala, inviting us to soften and flow.

Water teaches us that not everything needs to be controlled. It moves around obstacles, finds new pathways, and continues its journey. It reminds us of our emotions, our capacity to feel, to love, to receive, and to adapt. Water asks us where we might loosen our grip and trust the natural movement of life a little more.

And then came Fire: Agni.

Fire brings transformation. It gives us energy, courage, vitality, and the power to act. It reminds us that there are moments when we need to step forward, to make a choice, to release what is no longer serving us, and create space for something new.
But perhaps Fire also teaches us about discernment, learning what is truly worth giving our energy to. We don’t need to keep every fire burning. Sometimes tending our inner flame means protecting it, allowing it to become steady and strong rather than constantly asking it to burn brighter.

And then there is Air: Vayu.

Air is the breath, it is life.

It is movement, freedom, circulation, and connection. We cannot hold onto air. We receive it, and then we let it go. Every breath is a tiny lesson in receiving and releasing.

The breath moves through the heart, the heart moves with every breath, and both remind us that life is not meant to be held too tightly. Air invites us to open, to breathe into possibility, to allow love to move through us rather than trying to possess or control it.

When we are caught in fear, we often hold our breath. When we feel safe, we breathe more freely.

There is a deep wisdom here…

What happens when we give ourselves a little more room to breathe?

What might become possible if we allow the heart to have a little more space?

And then, finally, there is Ether: Akasha, the element of space.

Space is perhaps the quietest of all the elements, and yet it holds everything.
It is the space between the inhale and the exhale. The space between thoughts. The space between one chapter of life and the next. The space in which Earth, Water, Fire, and Air can exist.

We often think we need to fill every space in our lives. To keep busy, to keep moving, to keep doing. But perhaps sometimes all we really need is to create a little more space…space to listen, space to feel, space to simply be.

It is within this space that our deepest choices become clearer.

When everything becomes quiet enough, we can begin to hear the voice beneath all the noise — that gentle inner knowing that has perhaps been there all along.

The choices we make on the mat

This is one of the reasons I love yoga so deeply. The practice gives us a place to notice ourselves.
When we move into a posture, we are not simply moving the physical body into a particular shape. We are meeting ourselves in that shape. We are noticing where we grip, where we resist, where we rush, where we soften. We begin to notice the stories we tell ourselves and the expectations we place upon our own bodies and our own lives…and slowly, the questions become deeper.

How am I meeting myself here?

Can I soften without collapsing? Can I stay when something feels uncomfortable? Can I breathe when my mind wants to escape? Can I listen rather than push? Can I trust myself enough to change direction?

These are not only yoga questions…they are life questions!

The more I practise, the more I understand that yoga was never really about how beautifully I could perform a posture. The physical practice is only one doorway into something much bigger. The asana gives us an opportunity to become still enough to listen, to observe ourselves and to begin to understand what is happening beneath the surface.

This is where the real transformation begins.

Not in forcing ourselves to become someone different, but in becoming quiet enough to hear who we already are.

The pathways we create

There is also something fascinating happening beneath the surface of all of this, something that modern neuroscience is beginning to help us understand.

So much of our behaviour is not the result of a completely fresh decision every time. We develop patterns. When we repeat a behaviour in a particular situation, our brains become increasingly efficient at producing that response. Over time, what once required conscious thought can become almost automatic, a familiar pathway that our nervous system knows well.

Research into habit formation has shown that repeating a behaviour in a consistent context increases its automaticity, although the time and process vary enormously from person to person. In other words, our repeated choices can become our familiar ways of responding. (Wiley Online Library⁠)

This can be incredibly useful. We don’t want to consciously think through every tiny action we take each day. But it also means that some of our reactions, behaviours and even ways of thinking can feel as though they happen before we have chosen them.

Maybe you know that feeling?

Someone says something, and suddenly you react.

A familiar situation appears, and you find yourself doing what you always do.

You feel uncomfortable, and you reach for the same distraction.

You become afraid, and the old story begins playing again.

The choice can feel as though it has already been made.

This is where presence becomes so powerful.

When we become present, we begin to notice the moment before the automatic response takes over. We create a little space between what happens and what we do next.

And that space matters.

Habit research describes habits as efficient, default responses, while more deliberate action can work alongside them. (Annual Reviews⁠) Neuroscience research on mindfulness similarly suggests that cultivating awareness can help us recognise automatic thoughts and patterns rather than being completely carried away by them. (PubMed Central (PMC)⁠

I find this so supportive and empowering as we see that it is about becoming conscious enough to see them.
Because when we can see a pattern, we have a greater possibility of meeting it differently.

I truly love how yoga and neuroscience meet so beautifully in this modern life.

Presence creates possibility

So let's notice the breath before we react, feel the body before we speak, recognise the thought before we believe it. When we do this we become aware of the familiar pathway, and in that tiny moment of awareness, another choice becomes possible.

When we practise choosing differently, again and again, we are not simply thinking about change, we are practising it.
We are giving the brain and the body a new experience. We are, in a very real sense, allowing new patterns to become familiar.

And let's be honest, this does not happen overnight, not through force and certainly not because we have decided that we should suddenly be different.

But through awareness, repetition, patience and compassion.

One conscious choice at a time.

We are always becoming

I have changed so much through my years of practising yoga, and I know that my practice today is not the same practice I had ten, twenty or even five years ago.
My body has changed, my life has changed, and my understanding has changed. My relationship with me has changed…and that to me is beautiful to observe…

Sometimes we imagine that we are supposed to arrive somewhere to finally become the person we are meant to be, to reach some state of knowing where everything makes sense. But life doesn’t really work that way, there is always becoming.

We learn something, we grow, we let go, we begin again. We think we know the way, and then life gently, or sometimes not so gently, invites us to look again.

And perhaps the five elements offer us a beautiful map for this becoming.

Earth asks us to root.

Water asks us to flow.

Fire asks us to transform.

Air asks us to open.

Ether asks us to create space.

Together they remind us that life is not one fixed state.
We need grounding, but we also need movement. We need passion, but we also need softness. We need the courage to act, but we also need the spaciousness to listen.

We are made of all of it.

A living practice

This is something I feel very strongly in the Living Yoga journey. Yoga continues to meet us wherever we are. It doesn’t ask us to come to the mat as the person we were yesterday. It simply invites us to arrive as we are today.

And from there, we listen, we breathe, we feel, we move, we become still…and perhaps we choose again.

As I am currently preparing to begin our Living Yoga Teacher Training this month and I find myself feeling that familiar mixture of excitement and humility. After so many years of teaching, there is still so much I want to learn, question, explore, and understand more deeply.

We never really stop being students, we continue to walk, to learn, to change, and to become, which is why Living Yoga becomes so exciting!

The path is life itself

A little reflection for you… as we move further into autumn, perhaps you might take a little time to sit quietly with the elements within you.

Where do you need more Earth, more grounding, nourishment and stability?

Where might Water be asking you to soften, feel and flow?

What is your Fire asking you to transform, release or bring to life?

Where might Air invite you to breathe more freely, open your heart and allow something new to move through you?

And where might Ether be asking you to create a little more space, space between the doing and the being, space to listen, space to simply breathe?

And perhaps there is another question we can carry with us:
What happens in the space between what happens to me and how I choose to respond?

That little space may be where our freedom lives.

We cannot always choose what changes around us, but we can become more conscious of the choices we make within it.

Sometimes the greatest change comes from the smallest choice.

One breath.

One moment of awareness.

One pause before the familiar reaction.

One courageous step.

And then another…

With love in all directions,
Wenche ❤️🙏

“Every choice is a small vote for the life we are becoming. We cannot always choose what changes around us, but we can choose how we meet the change within us. The path changes when we choose to take the next step differently.”