Anusara Yoga, John Friend and the Hidden Benefits of Yoga

After many years of yoga study and practice, there is much I could write about the benefits of yoga.

Yet, right now I’m thinking of an old friend of mine, John Friend, founder of Anusara Yoga. And I want to focus on a particular yoga benefit that took me by surprise. It’s connected to John Friend and his Anusara Yoga.

People come to yoga for many reasons, health benefits, finding inner peace and expanding their spiritual growth.

For me yoga has much to do with finding my place in life and the work I now do for other people.

Anusara Yoga and John Friend

John Friend in Puna, India 1989

For many years, I’d been hearing about Anusara, but had never taken a class.

I first met John Friend in 1987 long before Anusara Yoga. This was in California where I was attending two-year yoga teacher training at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco.

John was visiting the city and had come there to study for a brief period. He and I would sometimes hang out together and chat between classes. And I could tell from his demeanor that he was on a mission.
 

Our paths crossed again in Boston at the 1987 Iyengar Yoga Convention and again in 1990 in San Diego.

Yoga Class with Iyengars Puna, India 1989

In between that time in 1989, John and I had the good fortune to attend a 3-week yoga intensive together with BKS Iyengar and his daughter Geeta Iyengar in Puna, India.

There were 30 of us yogis who traveled together as a group led by Mary Dunn. Mary was the fearless mother of yoga who kept us all focused during a rather arduous trek through one mishap after another, all the way to Puna. That’s another story altogether, and so I’ll save it for another post.

After that, John and I connected a couple of more times, and then lost touch as often happens when living far away from someone.

Now, here it is some 20 years later, and I decided to try one of John’s Anusara Yoga style classes lead by Jim Bernaert here on the Big Island of Hawaii.

At first I found it really hard. Yet something about it kept me coming back each week, and pretty soon I was getting stronger.

Why Am I Writing About Anusara Yoga?

Mark with John and Yoga Buddies Puna, India 1989

You may be wondering by now why I’m writing all this about John Friend and Anusara yoga. What does this have to do with the benefits of yoga?

And what is this mysterious yoga benefit that took me by surprise?

You see, I’m in the business of transformational coaching and training. Before that I was a building contractor, and had also tried many different businesses looking to find my place in life. I also taught yoga for many years, but never to make a living.

Yet something deeper (in addition to the normal the benefits of yoga) has kept my interest alive. For one thing, I’ve been attracted to the zeal and passion witnessed in many yoga teachers, and I’ve wanted that passion for myself.

For a long time I was focused on making money with not as much concern for what I would love to do. Yet I paid the price of feeling unfulfilled. It had not yet occurred to me that I could have both, money and fulfillment.

Eventually, I found that passion. Ironically, that is the work I now do for others. My wife Desirée and I help people from all over the world discover what they’re here to do and how to make money doing it. And we help people clear away the blocks to success that they wish they didn’t have.

I absolutely adore the subject of living with purpose and passion. And when I see someone who exudes that vibration, something primary inside of me is always stirred.

And this is what I see in John Friend and Anusara Yoga—and one of the many reasons I believe Anusara has become so popular.

BKS Iyengar and Mark Watson Puna, India 1989

I observed this also in BKS Iyengar and in many of his other teachers. And “that”—the passion of my teachers—as much as any other factor has kept me coming back to yoga all these years. I love being in the presence of people who love what they do.

Another benefit I love about yoga is the community that surrounds it. I have always found warm, welcoming friendly people in the world of yoga. I love hanging out with yoga people.
 

 

The Yoga of Congruence

I find it fortuitous that John Friend has reappeared in my life during this time. Only now it is through work he’s created.

There are many parallels in the path John has taken with Anusara yoga and the one I have taken.

After attending regular Anusara classes for all of the last year, I’ve become increasingly enamored with all that John has brought to the world of yoga.

Anusara has heart, it has song, it has style, and yet you still get that scrumptious precision of alignment in the poses. You work hard, but not too much—there is balance, and all of this in a context of fun, and grace—yes that ever-present sense of grace, the blessing of yoga. Anusara means flowing with grace, and indeed it does.

In August, 2009 I came upon John Friend’s blog. And he talked about his vision of what is now become Anusara Yoga. And what I’ve noticed most is the element of congruence John has found with his work in the world. But it wasn’t always that way. John worked hard for a long time developing his skill.

Congruence is an important theme for me right now. Not just because of the work I do, but reading about John’s reflections and his vision made me painfully aware of the places I had lost congruence in my own life.

Yoga helps you become congruent with yourself, and the more I’ve connected with Anusara, the more congruent I’ve become.

My relationship with yoga runs deep, I have trained extensively. Yet I don’t want to pretend to be on the same parallel as John Friend when it comes to traditional forms of yoga. I’m not even close.

What I want to share with you are the parallels between our stages of growth, being congruent and our business development.

And more importantly, what are the parallels that you can draw for yourself from reading this article?

Congruence is about taking Yoga beyond the mat into your life and what you want to create for yourself.

So it doesn’t stop there, I’m on a mission as well.

The Yoga of Success

Desirée and I have created a dynamic online training program called “The Codes of Destiny, Discover What You’re Here to Do, and How to Make Money Doing It.”

Prior to this, we had gone through many renditions on the theme as we were developing our training materials.

Working with marketers we developed our branding as Wealth Inside Out®, which we love. It fits. It’s like the yoga of success. The only problem was that we also had lost ourselves in the process of learning how to market our work.

We had focused on a niche of people going from seminar to seminar on how to make more money. We call this the “wealth circuit” yet mostly what we found was a lot of hype and nonsense.

Sure, there are many gems to be found in some of those programs, if you’re willing to wade through an ocean of sharks who really don’t have your best interests at heart.

Now we were at a new crossroads.

A Pivotal Yoga Encounter

Reading John Friend’s vision stirred me deeply because Desirée and I were now facing that same pivotal encounter. As John talked about his radical shift from the practice of yoga through willpower to one of opening to Grace, I new that is where we had gotten off course.

It was one of those piercing moments of awareness.

Desirée and I had become so focused on building our business through willpower that the element of grace had quietly slipped away. What’s interesting is that a lot of our money had slipped away as well. (We had a steep learning curve to overcome in sales and marketing.)

Now it was time for a course correction—much like adjusting one’s alignment in a yoga pose.

Prior to Anusara, John had been teaching other yoga styles for many years. And then he reached a new plateau. And this very same process was now activated for Desirée and me. We hit a new plateau in our direction… and though we learned a lot of valuable lessons from our many teachers, we’ve gone on to forge our own course.

And so, I relate deeply to this dynamic of recalibration and congruence. And this is why I’ve made a new connection with John even though we’ve not talked in years.

So even though Desirée and I had lost our way for a bit, our vision was very much alive and ripe for expression.

Yoga is about the universal principles of alignment, and that is what we teach as well. How to get aligned with yourself and what you do for a living. What does it mean for you to be congruent?

John Friend learned tremendous lessons from his many teachers of yoga. And now he was looking to find his own grounding and style. He was no longer aligned completely with some of the philosophy and methods he’d learned.

Yet all of this was part of John’s natural recalibration before coming fully into his own. John studied with the best of the best, then he made it even better and put his own stamp on it.

It was this vital inner process that became a springboard for Anusara Yoga and all that it has now become.

Desirée and I started over too. We learned from best of the best, crystallized our vision and placed our stamp.

And that is the very process we teach people how to activate in themselves.

Much like John did in 1997, we’ve set out to bring our greatest gifts and talents to those who want to take the next steps in their growth and in their business or profession.

The Codes of Destiny is not an easy program because you must be ready to look deeper inside, and perhaps make some changes in your life. But the payoff is huge once you learn how to activate your true calling.

Yet most people get stuck when trying to do that for themselves, until they get the right tools and training.

We teach you how to build a profitable business based on your passions.

So, to get the true benefits of yoga in relation to your unique place in life, you have to take yoga off the mat. You have to be willing to take that next vital step. What are you here to do? And how will you make it happen?

Thank you John Friend for Anusara Yoga, and the gifts you bring to life. And thank you to Jim and Ruthie Bernaert for sharing your precious wisdom and gifts each week. And to each of you for sparking these hidden benefits of yoga—the benefits of reconnecting with my vision and being congruent.

Are you ready for congruence in your life?

Are you ready to activate your vision and place your stamp?•

To learn more about the Codes of Destiny you can click the link, or just enter your first name and email address below to begin Part 1 free.