From Asana to Metta: A Yoga Teacher’s Buddhist Heart

Thirteen Years In, Becoming, Not Arriving

A practice shaped by presence, kindness, and becoming.

By Leslii Stevens ERYT500, YACEP


For the last thirteen years, I haven’t just been a yoga teacher, I’ve been becoming one. Becoming steadier. Becoming more honest. Becoming kinder. What began as movement and breath has deepened into a living philosophy that shapes how I teach, how I listen, and how I meet the world.


Over time, my path has braided itself tightly with Buddhist tradition. Not as a label, not as a performance, but as a practice rooted in love, kindness, and compassion. This is the heart that beats beneath every class I teach.


Where Yoga Meets Buddhism

Yoga and Buddhism meet in presence, compassion, and care.


Yoga and Buddhism have long walked side by side. Both invite us into presence. Both ask us to see clearly. Both remind us that suffering is part of being human — and that there is a way to meet it with care.


Through years of study, practice, and lived experience, Buddhist philosophy has quietly steeped itself into my teaching. I’ve read countless texts, sat through Dharma talks, listened deeply to Buddhist monks and teachers whose wisdom was offered not loudly, but generously. Their teachings didn’t ask me to become someone else — they asked me to return to what is already here.


What stayed with me most was not doctrine, but practice:


Loving-kindness over judgment


Compassion over fixing


Presence over perfection



Metta as a Living Practice

Loving-kindness as practice, not just words.


Every class I teach ends the same way, with a Metta (loving-kindness) prayer. This is not accidental. It is intentional. It is ancestral. It is Buddhist at its core.


Metta reminds us to offer goodwill first to ourselves, then outward, to those we love, those we struggle with, and ultimately, all beings everywhere.


In a world that often feels sharp, fast, and divided, ending practice this way feels like an act of quiet resistance.

May you be safe.

May you be healthy.

May you live with ease.

These words are simple. They are also radical.

How I end every practice...


“Hands to heart,

to remind us to be more kind to one another,

but most importantly,

to be more kind to ourselves.


May all beings be healthy.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings be free.

May all beings find peace.

May all beings move with ease throughout their day.


Om Shanti. Peace.

Om Shanti. Peace.

Om Shanti. Peace.”

-Yogi Leslii Stevens


Teaching From the Inside Out

Teaching from the inside out, grounded, human, and compassionate.


My classes are not about chasing shapes or forcing bodies to comply. They are about nervous systems, breath, awareness, and choice. They are trauma-informed. They are grounded. They are human.


Buddhist philosophy informs how I hold space, how I pause, how I listen, how I remind students that nothing is wrong with them. Yoga becomes less about doing and more about being. Less about achievement and more about kindness.


This is not about converting anyone or naming an identity. It’s about honoring the lineage of compassion that has shaped me and allowing that lineage to move through my teaching.


Why This Matters Now

When the world feels unsteady, kindness becomes an action.


We are living in a moment where the world feels unsteady. When things are out of our control, choosing kindness is still an action. Choosing compassion is still a practice.


Yoga, infused with Buddhist wisdom, becomes a way to meet uncertainty without hardening. A way to stay soft and strong. A way to remember that peace is not passive, it is practiced.


This is the path I walk. This is the heart I teach from.

May all beings move with ease.