Yoga Instructor Stretches Students’ Bodies, Minds

By Paige Kube
Copy editor

Students of local yoga instructor Lex Fry limber up during a special workshop with guest instructor Beryl Bender Birch. Birch integrates spiritual, mental and physical components into her teaching. - Photo courtesy of Lex Fry

Beryl Bender Birch, a spiritual teacher and yoga therapist, made her way to Washington College to teach a yoga workshop on Thursday, March 1.

Birch became interested in the study of yoga as a child growing up in California in the ‘70’s when there was a heightened interested in meditation and yoga. She quickly joined the West coast trend of Eastern thinking.

“I had always been fascinated by the heavy duty questions like, ‘Why are we here? What comes next?’” she said.

Her spiritual inclinations and environmental influence led her to begin her studies in 1971 with her first meditation class. Birch studied under Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Buddhist meditation master, and Muni Shri Chithrabhanu.

Birch considers yoga a methodology for spiritual evolution. It’s a discipline; it’s a way of waking people up so they can become fully active members in their community and the world.

Birch said her favorite part of yoga is “what happens when you’re able to silence your mind. The experience of yoga is unspeakable. Its connectedness.”

She has traveled teaching yoga throughout the United States and around the world, including extensive instruction in India. This year she has a full schedule; she will be training people in Costa Rica until November, when she may teach students in South Africa.

“Wherever I am is my favorite place to teach,” Birch said. “I get to meet wonderful people and a sanga, community, of people working on themselves to become more conscious.”

She came to WC at the invitation of her former student Lex Fry, who teaches recreational fitness classes including meditation and yoga on campus. She has been developing yoga as a part of the Recreation and Wellness program for the past 10 years at the College.

Fry said, “I’ve studied with Beryl as my primary teacher for almost 14 years. I’ve studied with many other teachers as well, but most of us who take up the serious long term study of yoga have one primary teacher who mentors our training for many years, as well as a variety of other teachers from various backgrounds. With Beryl, training is ongoing over the years, with most of us doing additional training of 30-100 hours of continuing education a year.”

When Fry proposed that Birch come to campus to teach a workshop, the community supported her idea.

Fry said, “[Birch] was scheduled to present a workshop in Pennsylvania this weekend, and it occurred to me that being this close, we might be able to offer just an evening class with her prior to that workshop. The reason I wanted to bring her to campus is simply to offer local yoga students another experience opportunity; just exposing them to other experiences in the realm of yoga with a scholarly teacher was my goal.”

Her idea seems to have been a success. The room was packed, and the responses from instructor and attendants were all positive.

“It was a very well-trained group,” Birch said. “People were very respectful and well-trained, not only in the discipline, but also well-trained in respect.”

Vice President for College Advancement Gretchen Dwyer attended the session and said, “It was a tremendous workshop. I learned much more about yoga and its rich history all within the context of an excellent class and top instruction from Beryl and Lex. I hope something like this comes to WC again.”

Drama professor Polly Ku’ulei Sommerfield, who attended her third workshop with Birch, said, “I attended the workshop because I learn something about myself every time I take a yoga class. I gain a sense of peace, of mental clarity and an awareness of the interconnection of mind and body. It was Lex who started me on this journey, and I find myself always following its path. What I got from the workshop is difficult to explain in a sentence or two; I’ve gain freedom and well-being every time I’ve studied with Lex and at the workshops I’ve taken with Beryl.”

Birch is also the director and founder of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute in East Hampton, New York, and Vermont. Her school trains yoga teachers and holds workshops for interested students around the world. She began training teachers in 1985.

In addition, she is a founder of the Give Back Yoga Foundation, started in 2007, which provides yoga to underserved communities and offers developmental grants to yoga teachers for community service projects.
These service projects do not have to involve yoga; the current focus of the foundation has been working with veterans to cope with their wartime pasts.

Birch has also written three books. The first, “Power Yoga,” is about the third limb of yoga, asana. “Beyond Yoga,” her second book, encompasses all eight limbs and the philosophy behind the yoga. The third book, “Boomer Yoga,” is directed towards the baby boomers as they reach their 40s or 50s and want to get into yoga. Her fourth book, entitled “Finding Peace,” focuses on veterans and people coming back from deployment and yoga as a way for them to cope.

Birch’s dedication demonstrates that yoga truly is a way of life.

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