Mark Stephens Yoga

Mark Stephens Yoga Training yoga teachers and teaching yoga students in the spirit of making the world better now and for future generations.

Making yoga more sustainable and transformational for every body.

Join me for 25 Forward Bends & Hip Openers — a 20-hour online intensive designed to expand your teaching skills and deep...
10/09/2025

Join me for 25 Forward Bends & Hip Openers — a 20-hour online intensive designed to expand your teaching skills and deepen your understanding of these essential asanas.

Live sessions begin October 11 + 6 months of access.

Link in bio.
Details: https://www.markstephensyoga.com/forward-bends-and-hip-openers

✨ Winter Solstice Yoga Retreat ✨Amid the swirling energies of the Winter Solstice and year-end celebrations, this all-in...
10/03/2025

✨ Winter Solstice Yoga Retreat ✨

Amid the swirling energies of the Winter Solstice and year-end celebrations, this all-inclusive retreat invites you to immerse yourself in Haramara’s natural setting for renewal and transformation.

Days unfold with sunrise meditation, mid-morning yoga, nourishing meals, workshops and beach time, late afternoon yin, and evening gatherings.

Eco-luxurious open-air casitas with ocean and jungle views offer comfort and serenity, while time together invites connection, conversation, and community.

🌿 Space is limited.� Link in bio.
Details and registration: https://www.markstephensyoga.com/haramara2025

🌴✨ Ready to reset and renew?From December 20–27, 2025, I’ll be leading a weeklong Yoga & Pranayama Retreat at the beauti...
09/27/2025

🌴✨ Ready to reset and renew?

From December 20–27, 2025, I’ll be leading a weeklong Yoga & Pranayama Retreat at the beautiful Haramara Retreat in Sayulita, Mexico.

This is a rare chance to step away from the busyness of life and immerse yourself in:
✨ Daily yoga, pranayama, and meditation
✨ Nourishing food and ocean views
✨ Rest, reflection, and community in paradise

📅 Dec 20–27, 2025
📍 Haramara Retreat · Sayulita, Mexico

👉 Learn more & register: markstephensyoga.com/haramara2025

Give yourself the gift of renewal at year’s end. 🌅

This is part of the promise of yoga free of narcissism: when we love ourselves, we expand love everywhere. That is a bea...
01/08/2025

This is part of the promise of yoga free of narcissism: when we love ourselves, we expand love everywhere. That is a beautiful thing.

01/07/2025

Adho Mukha Svanasana, better known as Downward Facing Dog Pose, and it's sibling, Puppy Dog, are a popular asanas found across yoga lineages and styles. Yet guidance in these asanas is often simplistic and from the one-size-fits-all approach found in many teacher training.

Our students deserve better!

These and other hand support and related arm balancing postures involve elements of alignment, energetic action, and modification that can make them more accessible, sustainable, and deeply transformational.

Just how and where should different students place their hands and fingers? What are the actions in the hands, forearms, upper arms, shoulder joint and shoulder girdle? What about the feet, arches, ankles, knees, things, hips and pelvis? The spine and core?

This is a small taste of how I try to present the details of asanas, building upon prior presentations and details of practical functional anatomy, subtle energy concepts, teaching methods, and other elements of guiding the practice.

Please enjoy, and happy teaching!

If your path is leading you towards a more yoga teacher training, I invite you to learn more about my 300-Hour Online Training that begins on January 11, 2025.

Full Details and Registration - https://markstephensyoga.mykajabi.com/300-online-yoga-teacher-training


Happy New Year! Here we go, the world still spinning around, a little wobbly yet still with lots of beautiful harmony. W...
01/03/2025

Happy New Year! Here we go, the world still spinning around, a little wobbly yet still with lots of beautiful harmony.

Whether it's from New Year's resolutions or the rhythm of the universe, January marks the beginning of yoga for many of us (I personally started practicing on the 1st of January 1991, and teaching on the 1st of January 1996). More new and lost students come to classes in January than at any other time of the year. It's an optimal moment for reflecting on what it means to have a yoga practice – in contrast to just doing (or even teaching) yoga from one class to the next. While there are practice templates, it's helpful to have a map of the terrain and the basic tools ready to apply for a lifetime of practice.

My 300-Hour Online Yoga Teacher Training empowers yoga teachers to share the practice with others in the most meaningful, well-informed, and inspiring ways. From anatomy and philosophy to detailed techniques of teaching, you will gain far greater insight and confidence as a teacher. With direct, live and state-of-the-art online engagement, this training is designed to ensure you refine your knowledge and skills for a lifetime of excellence in teaching yoga.

If you're curious about this training, have questions, or simply want to meet me, please join a free virtual information session via Zoom!

January 5, 2025 | 10:00am PST & 5:00pm PST - Link in bio

Namaste,
Mark

12/20/2024

2025 300-Hr Online Teacher Training Registration Now Open!

My renowned 300-Hour Online Yoga Teacher Training empowers yoga teachers to share the practice with others in the most meaningful, well-informed, and inspiring ways. From anatomy and philosophy to detailed techniques of teaching, you will gain far greater insight and confidence as a teacher. With direct, live and state-of-the-art online engagement, this training is designed to ensure you refine your knowledge and skills for a lifetime of excellence in teaching yoga.

• YOGA ALLIANCE CERTIFIED - With your successful completion of this training, you will receive a 300-hour Yoga Teacher Certification. With a prior 200-hour Yoga Alliance certification, you can register with Yoga Alliance as a RYS-500 Registered Yoga Teacher.

• EXTENSIVE LIVE ENGAGEMENT - Biweekly 4-hour Live Zoom Sessions give you a great way to engage with Mark and others in your group for discussions, Q&As, guided yoga practices and more that further supports you in your ongoing learning and growth. All Live Sessions are recorded so you can watch them even if you can't attend.

• CONVENIENT & FLEXIBLE FORMAT - Self-paced learning when it's convenient for your personal schedule means you can more easily fit the full training into your life. Plus, you'll have a full year (until January 2026) to access all course resources and complete the training program.

• EXPERIENCE YOU CAN TRUST - Practicing yoga consistently since 1991 and leading teacher trainings for over 25 years, I have trained thousands of yoga teachers from around the world. My four bestselling and comprehensive yoga textbooks (in ten langauges) are required reading in teacher training programs globally.

If you're curious about this training, have questions, or simply want to meet me, please join a free virtual information session via Zoom!

FREE VIRTUAL INFO SESSIONS

January 5, 2025 | 10:00am PST & 5:00pm PST

Link in bio!

________________________

"Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self." – Bhagavad GitaThe yoga path is an exploration of who ...
12/18/2024

"Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self." – Bhagavad Gita
The yoga path is an exploration of who we truly are—beyond the noise, distractions, and limits of the mind. With each breath and movement, we come closer to ourselves.
How does your practice guide you inward? Share your thoughts below.

FREE WINTER SOLSTICE CLASS ❄Refine and balance your energy with this free 90-minute yoga class LIVE on Zoom. Whether you...
12/18/2024

FREE WINTER SOLSTICE CLASS ❄

Refine and balance your energy with this free 90-minute yoga class LIVE on Zoom. Whether you are finding the holiday season to be a time of stress, joy, or both, the Winter Solstice is an opportune time to realign and balance your energy. This moderate flow class will feature a blend of asana, pranayama, and meditation techniques that are all about cultivating greater energetic balance in your life.

As an online class via Zoom, turning on your camera is optional.

DECEMBER 22, 2024 at 9:00AM Pacific Standard Time

REGISTER: https://markstephensyoga.mykajabi.com/winter-solstice-registration

Teachers have great freedom in how they hold the space of their classes. Here are several simple ways to bring even more...
12/16/2024

Teachers have great freedom in how they hold the space of their classes. Here are several simple ways to bring even more meaningful experience into your classes.

Yoga aligns with the rhythm of nature, offering a practice of renewal, balance, and connection. Let yoga guide you through the cycles of life, honoring each moment with intention and grace.

12/13/2024

This video comes directly from my upcoming 300-Hour Online Yoga Teacher Training, and I offer it to you as a free educational resource and as a sneak peek into the training.

While most of the videos in the training are detailed and technical in discussing topics such as anatomy, asanas, and sequencing, this video is an example of a lecture on yoga philosophy that offers insights into how to make our classes highly engaging and deeply meaningful.

In this video I discuss:
• The Bhagavad Gita and where (and why) it appears on the landscape of ancient yoga;
• Matters of one's "place" and "purpose" in yoga and life;
• The idea of multiple paths in yoga;
• The dramatic story of the Gita itself and how it can provide insight into our own lives, the intentions we bring to our practice, and how as teachers we might best share the practice of yoga with others.

As a "sneak peak" or preview of the training, this video will give you sense of:
• My voice and how I approach the more general and conceptual topics that we cover in the training;
• The mood or attitude on the training, which is meant to be engaging and to encourage open-minded exploration of everything;
• What it's like to study online via video learning.
• Please note that with most other topics, such as teaching asanas and pranayama techniques, the videos are altogether more "physical" and practical in how I present information to you.

Enjoy!

Address

Santa Cruz, CA
95060

Telephone

+18885949642

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Our Story

Yoga. It makes life better. It’s why I’ve practiced consistently for over a quarter century, taught for over 20 years, and trained teachers since 1998. It’s why I write definitive textbooks as resources for teachers, and it’s why I teach yoga and train yoga teachers.

Public classes in Santa Cruz, California, Tuesdays & Thursdays 5:30pm, Saturdays 8:30 and 10:15am.

200/+300/500-hour Yoga Teacher Training and In-Depth Studies in two formats: 21-Day Intensives (Summer & Winter) and 9-Month Immersions (9 weekend sessions).

Offering workshops and teacher training modules globally.