Where Science Meets Spirit
MISSION AND PHILOSOPHY
Yoga is a broad set of practices with a complex history going back thousands of years and stretching across continents. These practices, including movement, breathwork, meditation, restorative stillness, sound, and community dialogue, when interwoven with cutting edge, evidence-based practices for health and well-being, have the potential to support each of us in the process of transformation and self-realization. Here at The Essence of Yoga Center, our classes, retreats and trainings are designed to support everyone–from the ‘yoga-curious’ beginner to the experienced teacher-practitioner–to ‘find the teacher within’ and uncover our innate, vibrant well-being.
ALIGNMENT BASED, SOMATIC APPROACH
Somatic movement practices are any that invite the practitioner to use the body-mind connection to receive, process, and act on sensory feedback from the many systems of the body. This style of practice allows us to become exquisitely sensitive and attuned to the answer to the question: What is actually happening right now? Over time, with practice, the answers we receive can help us to restore the natural resiliency of the body, mind and nervous system, build self-trust, regulate and strengthen the immune system, and bring us a greater capacity for joy and well-being.
This Somatic Approach, which draws not only from yoga, but also from the rich worlds of Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Hanna Somatics and Body-Mind Centering, is complemented by our commitment to offering skillful, alignment based yoga. Many years spent studying the alignment based systems in yoga (Iyengar, Anusara, and others), along with a deep and continuing study of Kinesiology and Functional Movement allow us to offer the best of both worlds: a roadmap to inhabiting the shapes of the poses you love with ease, strength and fluidity, as well as an invitation into an exploration of the inner landscape, which will keep you practicing safely for decades to come.
BACKGROUND
The Essence of Yoga Center began its life in 1995 when Amanda McMaine built the yoga studio which would become a space for the group classes she had been teaching around the state for many years. This studio, designed with an eye to each and every detail of the students’ and teachers’ experience, was the home of her heart, and became home for students from far and wide who would come to experience Amanda’s unique teaching style in group classes and private sessions.
In 2008, Amanda designed and led the first yoga teacher training program at Lexington Healing Arts Academy. For eight years, she shepherded hundreds of aspiring yoga teachers and practitioners in partnership with Bill and Debra Booker at LHAA. In 2016, in partnership with Cara Sparkman and Tanja Bisesi, the teacher training programs at The Essence of Yoga Center were born.
Through another six years, a worldwide pandemic, hundreds more students, and thousands more hours ‘on the mat,’ Amanda, Cara and the faculty at The Essence of Yoga Center have realized the dream of sharing the light of yoga with the world. This is our true Heart’s Desire and our Life’s Mission.
While Amanda may no longer be among us in physical form, her legacy lives on through the heart and spirit of her teaching, the nourishing atmosphere of this space, and ‘the essence of yoga’ itself.