SARAH POWERS began teaching in 1987. She interweaves the insights and practices of Yoga and Buddhism into an integral

practice to enliven the body, heart and mind. Her yoga style blends both a Yin sequence of long held poses to enhance the

meridian and organ systems, combined with a flow or Yang practice, influenced by Viniyoga, Ashtanga, and alignment based

teachings. Her Buddhist training in Insight Meditation includes many retreats with Spirit Rock trained teachers, time spent in a

Monastery in Burma, and a dharma teacher training with Bhante Gunaratana. Her main influence for the last 7 years has been

the Dzogchen teacher, Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Sarah teaches retreats with her husband Ty, and together they home school their

teenage daughter, Imani Jade. They live in Marin, CA.

REACHING DEEPER

Through studying yin yoga, Sarah learned that it had its greatest benefit when practiced before a more active asana practice,

not afterward. When we work actively, the pranic flow and circulation are directed into the muscles and superficial connective

tissues. By comparison, a long-held passive pose practiced while the muscles are not yet warm allows the energy to reach the

deeper connective tissues of the joints and the corresponding pathways of the meridian system. (The meridian system is

composed of energy channels) The prana (or life force) stimulates and tones the joints, deep connective tissues, increasing

the supply of fluids to them, making them less dense and enabling them to stretch appropriately. As a result, we become more

  flexible, our joints become "juicier," and energy blocks along the meridians are removed, enabling the organs to function better.

And because the influx of prana works on the nervous system too, we become not only calmer but also more focused. 

"If you never go into the deeper connective tissue," Sarah says, "it becomes denser and less flexible-more yin-making it more

difficult to go deeper into asanas and uncomfortableto sit in meditation. For me, the purpose of doing yoga is to feel more at

home in my body. I'm interested in having harmony in my body and in enabling energy to flow freely to all channels, joints,

muscles and organs. Yin yoga enables me to reach levels of myself I otherwise could not get to."

PUSHING YOUR EDGES

Sarah finds that the passive yin approach gives students a new edge to work with in their yoga practice -the edge of just being

in a pose without trying to get anywhere in it. "Yin practice takes you deeper into where you are, not out to where you think you

should be, "Sarah notes. "This approach challenges us to rethink what asana is about. It marries meditation and asana into a very

deep practice. Some people, especially beginners, are not interested in or willing to do this -to sit inside their discomfort and just

watch their reactions instead of trying to fix or change the pose. Yin yoga challenges you to sit in the pure presence of awareness.

It's hard in a different way than active asana practice, but in a way that's more profound and satisfying as  well as more beneficial to

the deeper tissues." This doesn't mean that Sarah has given up her active asana practice. In fact, she is continually working on

deepening her yang practice, too. "We learn how to be still, but we also have to utilize our muscles and express ourselves

energetically," she says "The goal is a sattvic [pure] balance of tamasic (passive) and rajasic (active) energies -a beautiful marriage

of yang and yin, effort and surrender, ha [sun] and tha [moon]. The practice of yin/yang yoga helps us learn about stillness in

movement and the flow in stillness." Sarah finds that her yin practice has helped to facilitate and deepen her yang practice.

"The ability to surrender to that yin practice becomes deeply engrained in you and carries over into your yang practice," she says.

"This keeps you from 'overefforting' and trying to push yourself into various poses, which increases the likelihood of injury.

Plus after yin practice, you find that there is already more energy flowing at deeper levels, so you are more flexible and

require less warm-up. As a result, you go deeper with less effort."

CULTIVATING WHOLENESS

Sarah's meditating has been primarily in the Buddhist traditions. She has studied in the U.S. and Asia with highly distinguished

teachers - most notably, Jack Kornfield in the vipassana tradition, Toni Packer in the open awareness of the Zen tradition, and the

Tibetan reincarnate lama Tsoknyi Rinpoche in the Dzogchen path of effortless clarity. Buddhism has given her a clear map to the mind

and helpful tools for getting into silence and stillness. She is also inspired by the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj of the

Advaita Vedanta, school of Indian philosophy based on the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita that emphasizes non-duality and holds that liberation

is attained through a dissolution of all individuality. She uses these tools in her workshops because she wants to share them with others and help them

experience the power of stillness that she finds in yin/yang yoga.