Sarah Powers (born c. 1963) is a yoga teacher. She co-founded the Insight Yoga Institute and created Insight Yoga, a combination of yoga, transpersonal psychology and Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, described in her 2008 book of the same name. She was closely involved with the creation of Yin Yoga.

Life

Early life

Sarah Powers began yoga in 1986 at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, as a component of her degree there. Her career was driven by a life-changing accident in a yoga class led by "a senior yoga teacher". The teacher instructed the class to begin with Sirsasana, yoga headstand without warm-up preliminaries. From there the woman suggested the class drop straight into a headstand

backbend A backbend is a gymnastics, contortion, dance and ice skating move, where the spine is bent backwards, and catching oneself with the hands. Throughout the move, the abdominal muscles, obliques, and legs are used to steady the performer while curv ...

( Dvi Pada Viparita Dandasana, an advanced pose, rated 24 by

B. K. S. Iyengar Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014) was an Indian teacher of yoga and author. He is founder of the style of yoga as exercise, known as " Iyengar Yoga", and was considered one of the foremost yoga guru ...

). Powers, "with the lethal combination of a bendy back mixed with unbridled enthusiasm to try new things", complied. The teacher asked them to do it again, and as Powers lifted her legs from the backbend, her lower back gave an audible crack and a searing pain from a vertebral subluxation in the lumbar region. Recovery was lengthy, involving " chiropractors and acupuncturists". She lost the ability to perform such advanced backbends, but learnt

therapeutic yoga Yoga as therapy is the use of yoga as exercise, consisting mainly of postures called asanas, as a gentle form of exercise and relaxation applied specifically with the intention of improving health. This form of yoga is widely practised in class ...

under

T. K. V. Desikachar Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Venkata Desikachar (21 June 1938 – 8 August 2016), better known as T. K. V. Desikachar, was a yoga teacher, son of the pioneer of modern yoga as exercise, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style that he taught was initia ...

and

Gary Kraftsow Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Venkata Desikachar (21 June 1938 – 8 August 2016), better known as T. K. V. Desikachar, was a yoga teacher, son of the pioneer of modern yoga as exercise, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style that he taught was init ...

. The injured back led her to try the gentler Yin Yoga under the instruction of

Paul Grilley Paul Grilley (born November 11, 1958) is an American teacher of modern yoga known for helping, along with Sarah Powers, to develop the slow-paced style, Yin Yoga. He and his wife Suzee Grilley train teachers in Yin Yoga. Education Paul Grilley g ...

Career

Powers began teaching yoga in 1987. In 2008 she created Insight Yoga, a combination of modern yoga, transpersonal psychology and Buddhist and Taoist philosophy including

Chinese meridian theory The meridian system (, also called channel network) is a concept in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Meridians are paths through which the life-energy known as " qi" (''ch'i'') flows. Meridians are not real anatomical structures: scientist ...

, co-founding the Insight Yoga Institute with Ty Powers. Insight Yoga's style is a blend of the soft, slow and gentle Yin Yoga, a name that she devised, with a more typical "

hatha yoga Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

" practice, that she calls Yang (harder) by contrast, influenced by schools such as Iyengar Yoga and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. She has given workshops at the Esalen Institute and other centres around the world. She was identified by '' Yoga Journal'' as one of the people who had "each, independently, discovered the benefits of merging mindfulness with asana", leading to "something we might call ' mindful yoga'."

Personal life

She is married with Ty Powers, who she met when aged 18. They have a daughter and live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Insight Yoga

Insight Yoga, introduced by Powers's 2008 book of that name, balances Yin Yoga with conventional 'Yang' yoga, and integrates both with Chinese Medicine, in particular its meridian lines, and with the Vipassana meditation style of Buddhism, emphasising

mindfulness Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training. Mindfulness derives from ''sati'', a significant element of Hind ...

. Powers describes the integration with Chinese Medicine as making her yoga practice more skilful, "like learning to be my own personal acupuncturist—only without the needles".

Works

* 2008: ''Insight Yoga''. Shambhala, *2021: ''Lit from Within''. Shambhala,

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Powers, Sarah Living people 1963 births Mindful Yoga American yoga teachers