Our intention for yoga classes this week is to use movement and breath to express deep devotion, aligning us to the deepest parts of ourselves, and opening us to connect with the Divine and each other. Ishvara Pranidhana is the fifth and final Niyama (or Observance) in Patanjali’s System of Yoga. Ishvara can be defined as Lord/God/Spirit/the Divine. Pranidhana means surrender–a willful and active surrender to God–the reality and beauty of your life exactly AS IT IS in each breath, embracing both the sunshine and the rain with equilibrium. This relationship is one of active presence and total surrender. To surrender the fruits of our actions to God requires that we give up our illusion that we know best, and instead accept and trust that the way life unfolds may be part of a pattern too complex and beautiful to understand. Only by releasing our fears and our hopes for…