Sisters yoga school is a rare flower

Kari Sims Anthon, of Life.Love.Yoga. studio, has created the first-ever Registered Yoga School (RYS) for yoga teacher training in Sisters Country.

"The focus of the Life.Love.Yoga. school is to explore the great wide world of yoga together and to find what speaks to your heart. By bringing in teachers from many other areas while offering a multi-disciplinary method we are able to find the true, authentic self," said Anthon, owner/director of the studio and primary facilitator at the school. Life.Love.Yoga. school is registered with the Yoga Alliance.

Currently there are over 3,000 RYSs in the United States. Oregon is home to just 1.6 percent of those schools. A mere 0.3 percent are in Central Oregon, making Life.Love.Yoga school a pretty rare flower in the desert.

"My dharma (life's path) is to share the teachings of yoga," says Anthon.

The Yoga Alliance (YA), a standards-setting organization and the office that holds the national registry of yoga schools, sets the framework for training content that all RYSs must comply with. Coming up with a consistent framework for the training content was a test the YA board faced in 1999.

Their website states, "Challenges abounded, as yoga has been around for more than 5,000 years, and the system and practice are still evolving. There are many different disciplines of yoga, each with a particular emphasis or approach. So, the challenge was to determine commonalities among the different yoga disciplines. The Yoga Alliance team ultimately created standards for training in five core areas: techniques, training and practice; teaching methodology; anatomy and physiology; yoga philosophy, lifestyle and ethics; and practicum or practice teaching."

Anthon provides time off and on the yoga mat, both inside and outside the studio, while incorporating guest instructors throughout the program.

The school currently has six students registered for the spring 2015 program.

"My whole intention is to create a space for self-exploration," says Anthon. "Yoga is a lifetime of practice and learning. I want the students to explore all branches of yoga to find the best fit for them. Yoga is so much more than the asanas (poses). Once the students graduate from the program, my desire is for each one to realize that we are all lifelong students of this practice."

Anthon, ERYT 500, I.A.Y.T, and I.Y.T., has been instructing yoga since 2000. Shortly thereafter, she created a yoga studio in England, opened up Life.Love.Yoga. in Sisters in 2009, and that same year became the primary facilitator of the Heart of the Cascades Yoga Teacher Training Program at Central Oregon Community College. Anthon graduated her sixth class from COCC in June 2014. In October, Anthon and her husband, Dan, of The Fly Fisher's Place, purchased the building that is home to Life.Love.Yoga.

Classes will be held weekends February 2015-May 2015 at the Life.Love.Yoga. studio and sometimes in the outdoors. Additional requirements, cost of training, and other pertinent info are located under Yoga Teacher Training on the studio's website: www.lifeloveyoga.com.

The studio/school is located at 164 N. Elm St. For more information call 541-390-5678.