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august/september 2015yogajournal.com.aupopularised vigorous flow classes and
coined the term “Power Yoga” – a name
he’ll candidly tell us is redundant: “I used to
think Power Yoga was a cool name as
there’s nothing more empowering than
doing a well-rounded yoga class but now I
just think it’s a stupid name. It intimidates
people as they sometimes think this style of
yoga is too hard for them. I don’t want to
alienate people. As soon as I find a better
name, I’ll change it.”
In 1995, Kest released the sometimes-
parodied Power Yoga with Bryan Kest
videos featuring a young, darker-haired
Seane Corn as a model yogini. It was from
this era, which Kest rose to become the
esteemed yoga authority he is today;
stirring countless others along a yogic
pathway. Kest hasn’t had a regular pay
cheque since starting America’s firstdonation-based yoga studio in the mid
Nineties. His incentive for opening a pay-
what-you-can studio model was inspired
from his understanding that traditionally
yoga was originally offered for no charge
and to make yoga accessible to everyone.
This all-embracing approach continues
at Kest’s studios today, where the homeless
plus everyday people and famous celebrities
might be found practicing alongside one
another. One Christmas, on emptying out
the studio donation box, Kest found an
anonymous note accompanying a $700
cheque – payment for three years of free
yoga classes made good – testament to
Kest’s mantra: “When you’re living your
truth, somehow the universe takes care of
you.”
Albeit, while Kest is renowned for
teaching a complete physical yoga routinewhich he says is “intended to leave the
student completely tension free,” he is keen
to emphasise that the physical asana is just
the tip of the iceberg: “Yoga is just
calisthenics from India if you don’t practice
with a yogic mentality. The real objective is
to bring the qualities of meditation into
your asana practice.”
While Kest’s asana practice extends 33
years, what is not so widely known is that
he’s also assiduously followed a Vipassana
Meditation practice for 27 years – likely
inspired from his time studying in India
with S.N. Goenka - the Burmese-Indian
teacher of Vipassana meditation. As part of
a year-long sabbatical living in Mysore,
India, Kest also studied with the main
proponent of Ashtanga yoga, K. Pattabhi
Jois. Kest credits this time with Pattabhi as
a formative experience: “It was a great time
because I was there with Pattabhi by
myself, so I really got to know him and I got
to pick his brain... What I learned from
Pattabhi is mostly everything I never want
to be as a yoga teacher and that’s been
really important to me to move forward. I
needed to have that experience with
Pattahbi to push me to where I wanted to
go.”
At 51, Kest packs seemingly
indefatigable energy and still practices six
times a week, although these days he sports
much shorter hair. What doesn’t appear to
have changed from his early teaching days
is Kest’s unflagging tenet - “there is no
enlightenment at the end of a yoga pose” - a
notion he continues to reiterate to his
students.
A large part of Kest’s maxim is to
encourage students to leave rivalry,
judgement, narcissism and reactivity at the
studio door: “A lot of people bring a
stressful state of mind into yoga and end up
perpetuating that mind state in yoga as
they’re too busy trying to touch their head
to their toes or do Triangle Pose correctly...
That’s why I say people bring their rubbish
to yoga and they turn their yoga into
rubbish.”
Through an incessant dialogue, which is
often delivered in first-person - “if there’s
anything I’m holding on to, I can just let
go” – Kest strips back any preconceived
ideas that perfection has a place in yoga. At
the very core, he wants students to enjoy
yoga as the ultimate personal practice and
emphasises the need to be on high alert of
feeding negative mental habits – namely,
comparison and competitiveness.
“I think we can all agree that we’re not
going to heal relationships and solve“He’s especially good at dropping the f-bomb during class;
which grabs an easy headline wherever he travels.”PHOTOS: COURTESY OF BRYAN KEST; (FACING PAGE) JALAL PASHANDI