Susan Marcus

Susan Marcus, RYT, For Susan, yoga truly is the union of body, mind and spirit; it is a means for connecting deeply and authenticallywith Life and with one's Self. Her classes include Pranayama (breathwork) as well as asana (postures), but her focus remains on prana (life force; breath), using breath as a means for opening the body more fully in asana without the strain and struggle with which we tend to push through the rest of our days. To her, yoga practice is about letting go, and surrendering to the natural opening and releases that each inhale and exhale offer. When you can learn to do this in your yoga practice, you can learn to be more open to the natural flow of life, whatever it may bring, and then life too becomes a joy instead of a struggle.

Susan's classes are ideal for beginners and advanced students alike - anyone who wants to embrace all the benefits that yoga offers. Susan is a great example of how yoga can literally change your life. During her former stint as a Public Defender, often working over 80 stressful hours a week, Susan was in a car accident that not only injured her spine but also triggered the onset of fibromyalgia, a physically and emotionally debilitating illness. By 31, she was also diagnosed with osteoarthritis and degenerative disc disease (DDD). Formerly active as a runner, walker, swimmer and cyclist, she could no longer walk more than a few blocks, and often, not at all. She was in constant pain and perpetually physically and mentally exhausted. Remembering how healing her yoga practice had been in her earlier, college years, she returned to it again, modifying poses she couldn't do and embracing those she could.

From the start, Susan's yoga practice was more than just the doorway back to physical activity; it was a sanctuary from the chaos and struggles in her demanding life. Susan's yoga practice was, and is, the foundation of her journey toward self-awareness, healing, and personal transformation. It has also been tremendously physically rewarding. After the first few years of dedicated yoga practice, nearly all traces of fibromyalgia were gone. Eventually, MRIs no longer showed any trace of arthritis or DDD.

Awed by its many profound benefits, Susan began teaching yoga in 2000 and soon gave up practicing law entirely (she viewed her former work as incompatible with the yogic principle of Ahimsa, or non-harming). Fascinated by the self-awareness and emotional aspects of yoga, she became certified as a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist, whose mind-body principles she also incorporates into her classes. She has since become a mentor for new yoga therapy trainees and is the founder of Prana Yoga and Body-Mind Therapy, where she offers small classes responsive to her students' needs, works individually with clients who want to explore the secrets and wisdom of their bodies, and offers workshops that help students cultivate mindfulness as well as self-knowledge through the body

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