my yoga bio
by Stuart Siegel

I was first introduced to Eastern philosophy at the age of 16 when my mother took me to see Sri Swami Satchidananda in San Francisco. It was also my mother who took me to my first hatha yoga class in college, in 1990, and turned me on to vegetarianism in 1979. Now, she has become quite the devoted yogini, practicing yoga daily. I feel fortunate and thankful to have such a good role model and I aim to pass this on this motherly love to others.

My main goal as a yoga and sanskrit teacher is to create community, bringing people together, through yoga, chanting, and vegetarian food. I strive to approach each person where they are at, and encourage each person to be present, relaxed & consistent with his or her practice. My focus is to creatively inspire students to learn the basics of yoga and create their own regular yoga practice. My motivation comes from my own 2+ hours daily yoga practice. I like to help students become more confident to develop a stronger more regular practice, by teaching the aspect of Bhakti or devotion, as it relates to the yoga tradition.

Since 1996, I have been practicing Ashtanga Yoga daily. I have been teaching yoga for 14 years in San Francisco. In 2007, I assisted Clayton Horton at Yoga Tree Valencia. I have studied abroad five times, twice in India and three times in Thailand, most recently for one month in Thailand with Kirsten Berg & Mitchell Gold.

I have also studied tabla & voice at the Ali Akbar College of Music with Ali Akbar Khan and Tim Witter, and studied chanting daily with MA Jayashree in Mysore, India, focusing on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Currently I am teaching Yoga Sutra Chanting every Wednesday evening at the Integral Yoga Institute in SF. For the past seven years, I have also been hosting full moon chanting circles, chanting the Maha Mrtyunjaya Mantra 108 times. For all of my adult life at least, I have felt an affinity for everything Indian, and I also have a great love and collection of Indian music that I like to play during yoga classes.

Other teachers I have studied with are Sri K Pattabhi Jois, Sharath Rangaswamy, Tim Miller, Devorah Sacks, Edward Clark, Rolf & Marci Naujokat, David Roche, Kimberly Flynn, Heidi Lender, John Wilhelm, David Swenson, Larry Schultz, Mark Statsny, Jamie Lindsay, Alice Joanou, Sarah Powers & Lar Coughlan.