The eagle is often seen as a symbol of freedom, with its expansive wingspan soaring high above, almost untouchable. But this month, we explore what it means to find freedom through its opposite: constriction.

In yoga, Garudasana (Eagle Pose) asks us to twist and wrap ourselves into tightness. Arms and legs cross over, the breath feels shallow, and space becomes scarce. The constriction in the body mirrors the places in our lives where we feel bound or stuck—by responsibility, circumstance, or fear.

Eagle pose invites us to go ahead and get tangled. In that struggle, compassion begins to grow, and we start to understand how others might feel. From that awareness, judgment fades, and we remember that everyone carries a complex story of ebbing between a tight grip and softness.

Eagle pose carries a powerful teaching: there is strength found in stillness and “shrinking” the body closely inward, into oneself. The smallness is containment, or power refined. Like the eagle before it takes flight, there is a gathering of energy or a coiling of strength before expansion!

When we finally unwind from Eagle pose, releasing our limbs and expanding across the chest through a deep breath, spaciousness feels different. We can appreciate liberation from the pose because we’ve met its opposite. And when we are in class, we feel that liberation together, as one, emerging renewed. True liberation isn’t just the soaring of one it’s the rising of all.