Yoga Field

Anusara yoga is one of the youngest schools of yoga, being founded in only 1997. “Anusara” roughly translates as “go with the flow” or “follow your heart”. Anusara yoga sprouted from the much older hatha yoga. Although there are some changes from hatha yoga, both schools of yoga hope to help each person find health of mind, body and spirit.

The History

Anusara yoga was created in 1997 by John Friend, one of if not the most popular American yoga instructor of the time. After years of studying and teaching hathat yoga, John was inspired by a text in Sanskrit which included the word and concept of “anusara”. John Friend claims he felt “divinely inspired” to help people discover and appreciate their uniqueness in the universe, as well as become healthy and happy.

John Friend was born in Youngstown, Ohio – not the sort of place you would expect a creater of a new school of yoga to come from. As a child, he would eagerly make up yoga poses to “illustrate” the stories of Yogis his mother would read to him from Fate magazine. His mother never practiced yoga, but encouraged her son to study it, especially when he announced to his mother that yoga was better than comic books.

John went on to study phusics and accounting in college, while discovering the works of real yoga masters and spiritual writers such as Madame Blavastsky. He began to see that everything was connected — mind, body, muscles, spirit, events in your life – and studied Eastern meditation. One day, the meditation teacher got sick and had John teach the class. Through his students, John came to the conclusion that most people who seriously practice yoga are looking for more than just being able to do fancy poses.

John studied with American and Indian yogi instructors in America and India, trying to learn the true soul of hatha yoga. In 1997, he knew the form of yoga he wanted to teach was not hatha yoga.

1997

A friend by the name of Douglas Brooks sent John some verses from the Kularnava Tantra wich contained the word “anusara”. Yoga was never the same for him since. He knew that everything was connected – but what was the connecting force? In Anusara yoga, the connecting spirit is believed to be the Divine.

There are now over 900 Anusara yoga teachers all around the world. To find one near you, you could check out “Anusara yoga” on the web.