Most people don’t walk into a yoga class by accident. Something is usually calling us there. Maybe it’s a body asking for relief, a nervous system longing for calm, or a quiet knowing that we need a place to land for a while.
If we stay with the practice, something begins to shift. Breath becomes more available. The body starts to trust again. Life feels a little less sharp around the edges. We move through our days with more steadiness, more ease, a deeper sense of being at home in ourselves.
And then—often without fanfare—another change begins to unfold.
As we slow down and truly pay attention, we soften toward ourselves. From that softness, patience grows. We listen more fully. We pause before reacting. The care we practice in the room doesn’t stay there—it quietly follows us into our conversations, our relationships, and the way we move through shared spaces.
This is where yoga gently asks something more of us. Not through obligation, but through awareness. It reminds us that we are not separate. That how we speak, how we move, and how we respond matters. Even the smallest choices ripple outward in ways we may never fully see.
In the yoga tradition, this outward expression of care is known as seva—service offered simply because it is needed. Not dramatic. Not performative. Just responsive, sincere action rooted in awareness.
I learned this most clearly from my teacher, Donald Moyer, an early student of B.K.S. Iyengar. Donald embodied yoga in this way. When he retired, his parting words to his students were simple and repeated with quiet conviction: “Do the needful… do the needful… do the needful.”
I watched him live this teaching again and again. When students asked questions, he responded not with excess information, but with an immediate understanding of what was truly needed in that moment. Once, I overheard a student nervously sharing her hesitation about joining a level 2–4 class for the first time. Donald looked at her and said, gently and plainly, “It’s just a yoga class.” And just like that, the fear dissolved.
He practiced this same care in the smallest ways. I often saw him picking up props that weren’t his and putting them away as he left the room—no announcement, no expectation, just quiet attention to what was needed.
We see this spirit alive in our yoga community today. It shows up in simple gestures. Offering to give someone a ride to and from class. Bringing fresh bounty from one’s garden to share. Caring for the practice space by keeping it tidy. These moments matter. They shape how it feels to walk into our practice space. They remind us that yoga doesn’t end when class does. What we cultivate internally becomes what we offer externally. The steadiness we find becomes steadiness we share. The kindness we grow becomes kindness in action.
In Zen, they say there are only two things: you sit, and you sweep the garden. First, you tend your own heart. Then, naturally, you care for what’s right in front of you. Each of us has a small corner of the world we are meant to look after.
In a world that feels loud, fast, and overwhelming, tending the heart is not passive—it’s essential. When we become steadier inside, we don’t add to the noise. We become places of calm. From there, our actions can be grounded, thoughtful, and quietly powerful.
So, dear yogi—sit. Sweep the garden.
And when the moment arises, do the needful.
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Join Dorinda Nyberg & Debbie Gilman week of yoga in the heart of the Montana Rocky Mountains. Allow yourself to step away from your routines and stressors, feel the lightness that comes with deep, regular practice and grow in your understanding of what yoga means to you and why you practice, Jun 20 – 27, 2026, “Journey Into Quiet Presence: A Week of Yoga in the Montana Mountains.”
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About Dorinda Nyberg:
Dorinda’s teaching style helps students focus on intention and anatomical alignment through compassionate and clear instruction, skillful sequencing, and perceptive hands-on adjustments. Her purpose is to help students experience this ancient practice in a way that reveals its wisdom, and ease. Dorinda’s love of yoga comes through in her devotion to her teachers, her reverence for yoga’s complex lineage and is balanced with humor so that students leave class feeling refreshed with clear minds and energized bodies.
Dorinda has been studying Iyengar yoga since 1995 and began teaching in 2010. She is a long-time student of Donald Moyer, Mary Lou Weprin and Debbie Gilman, a graduate of The Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies Program and a Relax and Renew Trainer. She is certified at the Experienced 500 hour level (ERYT500) and a Continuing Education Provider (YACEP) with the Yoga Alliance. For seven years Dorinda coordinated and served as a member of the core faculty for the Advanced Studies Program at The Yoga Room in Berkeley.