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. Now, she has become quite the devoted yogini, practicing daily Ashtanga yoga.

My main goal as a yoga teacher is to create community, bringing people together, through yoga and vegetarian food. I strive to approach students 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 Ashtanga yoga. My motivation comes from my own 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 Ashtanga tradition.

Since 1996, I have been practicing Ashtanga Yoga daily. I have been teaching yoga for 11 years in San Francisco. In 2007, I was assisting Clayton Horton at Yoga Tree Valencia. Currently, my primary teachers are Sri K Pattabhi Jois, Sharath & family, Rolf Naujokat, Heidi Winig & John WIlhelm. I have studied abroad four times, twice in India and twice in Thailand, and just returned from a six month trip to India for intensive daily yoga studies with Sri K Pattabhi Jois & Rolf Naujokat.

I have also studied tabla & voice at the Ali Akbar College of Music with Ali Akbar Khan and Tim Witter, and recently took daily chanting lessons with MA Jayashree in Mysore, India, focusing on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. For the past three years, I have 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 Tim Miller, Devorah Sacks, Edward Clark, Kirsten Berg, David Roche, David Swenson, Larry Schultz, Mark Statsny, Jamie Lindsay, Alice Joanou, Sarah Powers & Lar Coughlan.