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Summary of Talk by Nicole Hayman-Sherman, Founder of Just Breathe Yoga Studio (USA), at the Indo-American World Yoga Conference, 2024
At the Indo-American World Yoga Conference, 2024, Nicole Hayman-Sherman, founder of Just Breathe Yoga Studio (USA), shared a heartfelt reflection on the essence of yoga as a pathway to unity, healing, and divine love. Speaking at a time when her home country faced turbulence and division, Nicole’s words offered both solace and a call to action: yoga is not merely a set of postures, but a living philosophy that invites humility, compassion, and self-realization.
Nicole began with an observation familiar to many teachers: most people first walk into a yoga studio for the asanas—the physical postures. While these movements are often the gateway, they represent only the outermost layer of a profound practice.
“What draws us in,” Nicole explained, “is rarely what keeps us there.” Beneath the postures lies a deeper transformation: a shift of awareness, a reorientation of the heart, and an introduction to the timeless wisdom of yoga philosophy.
To those she had recently mentored—individuals struggling with the unrest and unhappiness pervading society—Nicole pointed to the foundations of the Yoga Sutras: the yamas and niyamas. These ethical and moral guidelines, she explained, are not abstract principles but practical tools for daily life.
In particular, she emphasized ahimsa, or non-harming—in thought, word, and deed. In a time marked by division, she urged her listeners to cultivate humility, patience, and compassion.
Her reminder was simple yet profound:
Nicole’s reflections also drew on her Native American upbringing. She observed that in the United States, many people are conditioned to search for answers outside themselves—through status, possessions, or external validation. Yoga, however, offers a different path: one that turns inward.
Through meditation, self-study (svadhyaya), and mindful awareness, individuals can uncover wisdom that already resides within them.
Even children, she noted, seem to understand this naturally. In her classes, when asked what Namaste means, children often reply, “We are together.” In their innocence, they grasp what adults too easily forget: that unity, simplicity, and love are at the heart of yoga.
Yoga, Nicole reminded the audience, is ultimately a practice of awareness. Just as someone struggling with addiction must first acknowledge their condition, each practitioner must recognize their own patterns—habits of ego, attachment, and reaction—that obscure clarity.
Self-realization begins when we dare to ask: “What is the lesson here?” Every challenge, she suggested, is an opportunity to grow. With awareness and humility, the obstacles of life can become stepping stones toward liberation.
Nicole’s talk was not only philosophical—it was also deeply practical and hopeful. She urged the yoga community to embody its teachings, to let actions speak louder than words.
“We each have influence within our circles,” she said. “When we embody compassion, humility, and non-harming, we plant seeds of change.”
Her metaphor was both poetic and empowering:
“A drop becomes a wave. Each one of us is a drop. Let’s do what we need to do to make this a better world—and yoga can lead the way.”
Nicole concluded with a vision of yoga as a bridge back to divine love—the essence of who we are. In a time of collective unrest and division, she argued, it is this love that dissolves barriers, mends relationships, and heals the human heart.
Yoga, in its truest form, is not about ego or performance. It is about remembering our unity, embodying compassion, and allowing love to flow into all that we do.
Her words left the audience with a lasting reminder: yoga’s greatest offering is not flexibility of the body, but freedom of the spirit through love.
Nicole Hayman-Sherman’s talk at the Indo-American World Yoga Conference, 2024, was more than a philosophical lecture—it was an invitation. An invitation to live yoga as an ethic of compassion, a practice of humility, and a bridge to divine love.
Her reminder was clear: the world does not change in one sweeping gesture, but through countless small acts of awareness, kindness, and courage. One drop becomes a wave. And when yoga is lived as love, that wave has the power to transform the world.
