How Yoga Helped
An inner experience
Blissful, was how Maria Mazzi felt after her first Svaroopa® Yoga class. She had trained as an herbalist and studied many alternative health techniques searching for anything to relieve the constant, chronic, deep pain she lived with every day for years.
The lasting effects she felt after this first class were astonishing. Intrigued, she took a few more classes. For the first time in years, she found that it was possible to not only live pain free but to also have a genuinely lighter more positive mind. Maria decided she wanted to share this wonderful and gentle way to access "the bliss within" with as many people as she could. She wanted to share with people that "suffering is optional."
Maria received her training in the style of Svaroopa® Yoga, at Master Yoga Academy, in La Jolla, California. She was fortunate to have direct access to the originator of this style of yoga, Swami Nirmalananda (formerly known as Rama Berch). The training program was and continues to be intensive. The trainings cover not only how to teach and adapt poses to students' needs but also how the poses affect both the physical body and the mind as well.
Maria has taught yoga to people of all ages and abilities since 1998 at various locations in San Diego county, Costa Rica, Seattle and Washington DC.
She continues her training in both asana and yoga therapy. She served on the board of San Diego's local yoga teacher's association: Yoga Education Society since 2002 and was President for 3 years. She is nationally registered with the Yoga Alliance as an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT) at the 500 hour level. This means she has over 5000 hours of teaching. She is part of the teaching staff of Essential Yoga Teacher Training located in Del Mar, California and is intimately involved with Silver Age Yoga, a non-profit organization, dedicated to teaching seniors. Maria is also one of the co-founders of Aum-Events.com.
Mission Statement
From a student :
"The Svaroopa® class has provided me a scientific as well as physical framework for my own personal growth and consciousness as well as the obvious physical benefit.
It speaks to me and fits when other yoga styles, while valuable, did not have the strong draw and attraction.
I have noticed increased energy, lower blood pressure, as well as a more optimistic outlook on life.
I walk differently and experience less body pain."
Gordon