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In life, it’s often the quietest humans who remind us what matters most.

These are those who unknowingly teach us just by being who they’re. There’s a beauty and kindness demonstrated of their mannerisms, a special something in how their minds reply to life. If we allow them, they may be an unobtrusive reminder to us all to expand our perspectives and, perhaps, our way of being.

Harmony Willow Hansen is one in every of those quiet ones. When Hansen began practicing yoga several years ago, she casually observed that her body and people of a lot of the students on mats round her weren’t like those depicted on social media.

So she began creating illustrations that reflected what she was experiencing. Namely, people of all ages, shapes, backgrounds, and skills practicing yoga. Some are in chairs. Others are in intense backbends. Many are in standing poses. Just a few are sitting in quiet meditation.

“I really like yoga,” says Hansen. “And I really like the best way that the body looks in yoga poses. So I just form of began drawing what I saw in school.”

An artist since she was a baby, Hansen attended art school and was working as a nanny when she began capturing yoga through her perspective. “I needed some form of creative outlet,” says Hansen. So she began as an example yoga poses on her iPad while she was on the playground or on the subway. She continued to show to that outlet after beginning to work as a full-time graphic designer for a financial firm.

In 2019, she quietly began sharing her experience of yoga through art on Instagram. “Truthfully, I didn’t think anyone would see them,” says Hansen  “It was just a spot for me to place my artwork on the market on the earth.”

The Feeling of Being Seen

Her illustrations were seen. “The more I illustrated, the more people reached out to me saying, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s so nice to see myself reflected in your drawings,’” says Hansen, whose artwork has drawn a whole bunch of comments and nearly 65,000 Instagram followers. “It’s an incredible thing to get these messages from individuals who feel seen,” says Hansen. “I’m attempting to do yoga for me, and I feel a number of people connect with that.”

Those that have commented or otherwise written to Hansen and expressed being touched by her inclusive approach are sometimes family members of those that practice yoga, including individuals with a prosthetic leg or a wheelchair. Finally, they said, there was an experience of being seen.

(Illustration: Excerpted from You Are Strong and Worthy: Celebrating the Yogi in All of Us by Harmony Willow Hansen. Workman Publishing © 2023.)

Her illustrations were also seen by the editors at Workman Publishing, who asked Hansen to compile her artwork right into a book. What resulted is You Are Strong and Worthy: Celebrating the Yogi in All of Us, which comprises 256 pages of illustrations of all of us in our yoga practice. That features those of us who’re beginners, older, in another way abled, trans, undergoing chemotherapy, drained, and more.

The art sometimes focuses on her preferred poses or postures that she recently challenged herself to try. The commonality of those portrayed in Hansen’s art is a confident exuberance that expresses yoga’s uncanny ability to satisfy each of us exactly where we’re.

The Lessons That Find Us

The inclusive vibe of her illustrations is echoed by the rigorously chosen words that Hansen incorporates into a few of her art. Phrases comparable to, “Don’t rush the method,” “I select my thoughts,” and “Hey you! Let that inner judgment go!”

Hansen sources her quotes from Ram Dass, the Dalai Lama, Jay Shetty, Brené Brown, and Glennon Doyle, amongst others. “I take heed to a number of Joe Dispenza. He really modified my life,” she says. Along with writings and podcasts, Hansen draws inspiration from hearing a teacher mention something in school or reading what a follower sent her. And sometimes they’re her own revelations. “A number of things just come to me once I’m walking,” says Hansen.

Although others have let her know the reassuring and inspiring effect of the words, Hansen doesn’t want them to remove from the underlying message of the bodies within the poses. Some illustrations includee only the name of the pose. But she understands that the quotes hold lessons as well. Many are reminders to herself.

“I actually connected with visualization this last 12 months and changing the negative thoughts and allowing space for positive thoughts. It’s tough,” says Hansen of tweaking her inner narrative. “However it’s price it.”

(Illustration: Excerpted from You Are Strong and Worthy: Celebrating the Yogi in All of Us by Harmony Willow Hansen. Workman Publishing © 2023.)

Her current refrain when she catches herself falling into negativity is, “Nope, that is you sabotaging yourself, you’re not going to do that any more.” Her resolve was challenged not only while writing the book but beforehand, when she was debating whether to tackle the project. Imposter syndrome began to grow to be loud in her inner world.

“I actually am just the girl on the following mat. I really like yoga and I really like the community but I don’t know every little thing,” says Hansen. “I’m not some super mentally stable human who’s all ‘love and lightweight.’ I definitely have passed through periods of when the messages that I spread don’t all the time connect with how I feel within the moment. And it may well be overwhelming while you’re spreading positivity and love and kindness but don’t all the time feel that way.”

Knowing the relevance of that message, for herself and others, swayed her to pursue writing a book. “The more I thought of it, the more I believed, ‘Yes, there must be more illustrations of individuals doing yoga, no matter ability and color and gender and every little thing.’”

Whatever the particular takeaway from her illustrations, it brings concerning the potential for change in perception in anyone who experiences them. And for Hansen, that’s enough. “It’s been wonderful that it goes beyond myself and touches people all over the world,” she says. “It still blows my mind that I even have a book coming out and I even have this community.”

Her experience of feeling some element of exclusion and her work to vary that perception is a reminder that the practice of yoga itself doesn’t discriminate. There still stays room for more of that inclusion within the larger yoga community.

Harmony Willow Hansen’s book, You Are Strong and Worthy, published by Workman Publishing is on the market wherever books are sold. Her illustrated prints, t-shirts, totes, and more can be found at Harmony Willow Studio.

About Our Contributor

Renee Marie Schettler is a senior editor at Yoga Journal and has been a author and editor at The Washington Post, Real Easy magazine, and various other online media platforms. She began studying yoga nearly 20 years ago with teachers in Recent York City who challenged students to search out precise alignment in a posture. Her understanding of yoga modified when she began practicing with teachers who emphasized surrendering into the quiet stillness of a pose. She finds that editing, writing, and practicing yoga are each about becoming more aware of truth. Follow her at @reneemarieschettler.