Holding Space, Not the Spotlight: 5 Yoga Teachers Who Brought Depth to the Practice in 2025, and Why Their Work Matters in 2026
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In a year dominated by algorithms, aesthetics, and accelerated content, 2025 quietly reminded us what yoga truly is: an embodied practice, not a performance. Beyond trends, clickbait, and viral sequences, a small number of teachers continued to show up with integrity, depth, and devotion to the roots of the tradition, creating space for the natural rhythm to arise. Their influence was not measured in views or followers, but in the way they held space, shared knowledge, and helped students return to themselves.
This piece honours five yoga teachers who brought a sense of awareness to a small mass of the collective, substance to the practice in 2025, and whose work we believe will continue to shape yoga in 2026.
1. Aaron Petty
Aaron Petty runs a local studio in Melbourne, Australia. He is a Yoga therapist and trains teachers like himself worldwide. His teaching is focused on helping students build a sustainable practice that supports their personal circumstances, in turn helping them live a nourished and meaningful life.
We asked Aaron how teaching yoga has moulded him as a person. His answer: “Teaching yoga gifted me with a confidence that has shaped so much of my life, I’ve learned to articulate a message in a way that lands in the minds and hearts of my students, which ripples out into the rest of my life as an invaluable skill of communication”.
Through yoga, he is able to experience the gift of beautiful friendships and a community that supports his practice and study, whilst filling his heart with joy.
Aaron offers yoga therapy at the NDIS, Australia (National Disability Insurance Scheme). Working with wonderful individuals who overcome immense difficulties both in their practice and in life leaves Aaron with a bucket full of inspiration every day.
Mr Petty makes sure his students gain an understanding of the self as the observer, apart from asanas. His students often describe him as a “good storyteller”, which gives us a glimpse of the teaching space he cultivated.
You can access his service and teachings through the following links:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSqiCRvEzf_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
2. Allan Ray Enriquez
“Yoga has shaped me into a person with an optimistic attitude towards life and filled me with gratitude. Becoming a yoga teacher has taught me gentle resistance.” - Allan Ray Enriquez, a yoga teacher based in the Philippines.
A yoga teacher is similar to a guide to the journey of the self, somebody who embodies enough self-awareness and gentleness for the person in front to reflect on their own self. The world is craving for guides who exude kindness and integrity, with the ability to direct their students towards the path of light.
His students often say that they feel seen, understood, respected, and are given actionable practices that actually work. Allan’s focus lies on respecting and carrying forward the traditions of yoga in an authentic manner, instead of from an ego-driven stance.
A few assured takeaways from Allan’s class:
*Practice should never be about performance.
*Listening to your body while doing asanas is crucial.
*Being in the present moment and grounded in reality instead of getting caught up in the past regrets and future worries.
The year 2025 marked a pivotal point in Allan’s yoga. His school was accredited by the Yoga Alliance (India), which made his work more accessible to a larger and worldwide audience. He then travelled to Kerala, where he deepened his understanding of yoga and immersed himself in the ancient ayurvedic wisdom.
You can access his service and teachings through the following links:
https://www.instagram.com/allanatypical?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
https://www.instagram.com/p/DRrhpENER3Y/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
3. Savira Gupta
Savira Gupta, a lifelong seeker of Vedanta and Yoga, is based in London, UK. She is zealous about exploring how ancient wisdom can guide modern living. Her teachings are mostly inspired by her lived experience rather than “just” information. Her work revolves around blending eastern philosophy with western life and how they accommodate each other in a practical and heartfelt way. She aims to make her teachings simple, meaningful, and accessible so that others can live with clarity, purpose, and alignment with their Dharma.
Savira is highly influenced by the Bhagavad Gita, especially the teaching of acting without attaching oneself to the desired outcome. Life can get brutal for us all at any moment, something similar happened to Savira when her parents passed away during COVID, and this teaching came to life. Dealing with logistics, grief, loss, an entire shift of her reality while the entire world’s reality was shifting for all of us- even at such moments life asks us to show up, and she did.
We asked her if she thinks she is imparting something valuable to the world through yoga. Her response, “I believe that what I impart is valuable. I ask my students to listen carefully, to contemplate what they’ve heard, and then to apply it in everyday life. For me, the three pillars of Vedanta: Shravanam, Mananam, and Nidhidhyasam are central. From this comes critical thinking. It’s okay not to follow the herd. It’s okay to stand apart”.
It’s okay not to follow the herd. It’s okay to stand apart. - Savira Gupta
You can access her service and teachings through the following links:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DRcm8aZjsPE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://mylivingyogajournal.substack.com/
4. Vikramjeet Singh
Vikramjeet Singh is a yoga educator and mentor from Goa, India. He did not stumble onto yoga while searching for peace; instead, it began as a discipline for him. The structure of the practices, the repetition, and the kind of honesty yoga demands drew Vikram in. Over time, yoga stopped being something he practised but became something he returned to when life felt unclear. That shift, from performance to presence, has shaped both his practice and his way of teaching.
The role of a yoga teacher moulded him to be more attentive, to listen beyond words, to notice what is not being said, and to respond rather than react. Vikram’s words on teaching yoga- “it has softened my certainty and deepened my curiosity. I am less interested in having answers and more committed to staying in inquiry”. What a beautiful state of mind to be in, isn’t it?
“One of the most influential milestones was realising that teaching is not about transmitting information but about holding space. When I stopped trying to prove my knowledge and started trusting the practice itself, my relationship with students changed. That moment quietly redefined what it meant for me to be a teacher”, Vikram on his personal milestone in his yoga journey.
2025 has been a year of integration for Vikram. It was less about expansion and more about depth. Less about visibility and more about alignment.
You can access his service and teachings through the following links:
https://www.wanderingmat.com/200-hour
https://www.instagram.com/p/CeL7h0tPo3A/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
5. Diksha Lalwani
Diksha is a yoga and meditation guide based in Mumbai. She felt drawn to something deeper and quieter in life, while experiencing an adrenaline high often in her previous career. In 2013, she followed her personal calling and decided to step into a teacher training course at the Shivananda Ashram in Kerala.
The same year, she was serving in another retreat at Goa, where she experienced an unforeseen Kundalini awakening. It came to her unannounced, resurfacing old pain and fears, leading her to spend more time in meditation. This experience was a turning point in her yogic journey, which influenced her years of humble and steady inner work.
For her, yoga transcended mere postures. It became a path of purification (chitta-suddhi) through discipline (abhyasa), and devotion (sraddha).
Diksha embodies her teachings; she guides her students through yoga, and meditation and helps them merge with their own light. Her services are offered worldwide (online) and in retreats.
You can access his service and teachings through the following links:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwZmHG5pxRt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Self-awareness, discernment, integrity, authenticity, gentleness, and kindness for both self and others are soft yet profound skills our world currently lacks and desperately needs. To enhance this skillset, we must build spaces and communities that support a slow, deliberate pace instead of running on autopilot. This shift is a form of collective healing.
If you know yoga, you already understand my language. At its core, yoga is not just about the “classes” or “practice sessions”. It is fundamentally about how you show up in life and for yourself. If yoga is practised keeping its wholeness in mind, it has the capacity to build immense self-awareness, compassion, and qualities that surpass the mat and the body. They ripple outward, touching the world, your loved ones, and everyone around you.
The teachers who hold these communities offer a vision of a healthy and harmonious way of living that feels deeply lost on our planet. If any thought in this post resonated with you, I invite you to dive deeper into the resonance. Explore the teachers, the texts, the practice, and the communities that nurture this path.
“Yoga is a soft power, a skill that begins with the breath and with a shared love for balance. It builds warriors of integrity, ready to stand firm for a world in rhythm with nature” - Srijanee, Maitreya
Note: This is not a sponsored article.