Become a guide for a global shift in consciousness.

Dear fellow yoga teacher,

Welcome to the best day of your life. We are excited you are here, now, and that you have checked in to see what our 300-hour advanced yoga teacher training is all about. As graduates of The Hard & The Soft 300-Hour Yoga Teacher Training program, we are a global family of 500-hour (and beyond) certified yoga teachers and practitioners working for the healing of our world. We are all yoga teachers but we are also full-time mothers, fathers, doctors, farmers, artists, professionals, and are taking our yoga out into the world in a million different ways. We teach in prisons and corporations, to veterans and seniors, to at-risk youth and to people recovering from cancer. We believe that the practice of yoga is a powerful evolutionary tool that can help people to become more conscious, more compassionate, and more concerned with the welfare of all. Whatever we do, we embrace the 8 limbs of yoga and speak up, calling out injustice. We are proactive leaders in our communities – working for clean food and drinkable water, for the rights of animals, women, minorities, and for the sustainability of Mother Earth and our environment. Yoga makes a difference in people’s lives, and we get to see that every day. We hope you will join us.

Beryl Bender Birch, Founder & Director
The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute Community  

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WHY CHOOSE THIS TRAINING?

There are eight reasons our yoga teacher training courses rank so highly when compared to hundreds of other programs, and are consistently rated in the top 5% nationally by our graduates and those who evaluate our programs.

1. The students. Our programs attract top quality students and genuine, bright, compassionate human beings from all over the world. We consistently hear from our trainees and graduates that “this is the best group of people I have ever been a part of – I look forward to the training weekends because it feels like I am coming home.”
2. The Sangha (community). Students meet and are supported by like-minded practitioners and forge lifetime friendships.
3. The faculty. Unlike many other programs, our teachers have all been practicing and teaching for many years. Most are Certified Yoga Therapists (IAYT) and nationally renowned specialists in a wide variety of fields and yoga applications. Students would need to combine several different professional trainings in order to duplicate the comprehensive quality of our single program.
4. The practice. There are many ways to teach yoga and many ways to practice. Every weekend includes study and practice in asana, pranayama, and meditation, in order to help students find and define their unique path. The foundation and primary focus of our asana study for the 200 hour training is a brilliant vinyasa sequence of postures called Present Power. It can be as challenging or as accommodating as desired. Every student is certified to teach this power vinyasa system, plus more moderate styles of the practice that are capable of being amended for all limitation and disability, as well as beginning forms of pranayama and meditation.
5. The depth of training. Because all our faculty have actually been studying yoga and practicing all its aspects – asana, pranayama, meditation, service – for so many years, we can offer insight into the deeper dimensions of yoga that, frequently, the staff of other trainings does not have the experience to provide.
6. The emphasis on service. Through our affiliation with The Give Back Yoga Foundation, we prepare our graduates for a career in yoga service and help them to take their practice out into the world and be the change they want to create.
7. The Individualized Yoga Plan (IYP).  Every student develops an Individualized Yoga Plan with help from faculty and the director of the studio where they are training. This provides students with a way to identify their dharma and pursue a path into the specialized field of their choice.
8. The Director. Our Director, American yoga pioneer Beryl Bender Birch, is the founder/director of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute and co-founder of the Give Back Yoga Foundation. As a best-selling author, (Power Yoga, Beyond Power Yoga, Yoga for Warriors) and teacher, Beryl has been teaching yoga and meditation internationally for over 40 years and is a longtime faculty member at Kripalu and Omega Institute. She graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in English and Philosophy, and began the study of meditation in 1971 with her teacher, Jain monk Munishree Chitrabhanu. She traveled to India in 1974 to further her studies and started practice of the ashtanga vinyasa asana system with her teacher, Norman Allen, in 1979. She continued to study with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois from 1987 through 1993. Her book Power Yoga (1995), an accessible form of the ashtanga asana practice, sold nearly 300,000 copies and was primarily responsible for introducing yoga to the athletic community. She, more than most, walks her talk…and is one of the brightest, most down to earth, knowledgeable, accessible, funny, and joyful people you will ever meet. One of her gifts is making authentic and therapeutic forms of asana accessible to all. Everyone on faculty has trained with her for decades and is at least a 1000-hour graduate of her school, The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute. Beryl’s vision trickles down from the top and infuses the program, the faculty, the community, and the students.

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GET CERTIFIED TO TEACH PRESENT POWER YOGA, PRANAYAMA AND MEDITATION, OR DEEPEN YOUR OWN PRACTICE – OR BOTH!

The curriculum for this course is one of the most comprehensive, fascinating, diverse, and highly regarded in the country. The program is an excellent choice – both for those who may not want to technically “teach yoga,” but who wish to bring a more empowered and mindful sense of wellness into their life, and for those who dream of boldly stepping onto the path of becoming a teacher and sharing the benefits of their practice with others.

For those who wish to become certified as yoga teachers, our program will teach you the foundations of the 8-limbed path of classical yoga and train you in Present Power. Personally, this training will strengthen and accelerate your yoga practices, which in turn begin to work their way into your lifestyle. As you begin to develop greater focus and stillness – whether through asana, pranayama or meditation practice – your awareness will begin to grow, your circle of compassion will begin to expand, and the truly transformational effects of a dedicated yoga practice begin to reveal themselves. On top of all this, you will acquire the range of tools you need to teach a safe and therapeutic asana class and offer beginning meditation and pranayama techniques for stress and anxiety relief, and to begin working with special populations.

The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute is a Registered Yoga School with Yoga Alliance at both 200 and 300-hour levels. Once you have completed your 200-hour certification, you will be eligible to register with Yoga Alliance as an RYT 200.

We can also help you to create a career in yoga service, and experience the joyful satisfaction of teaching yoga. Whether you hope to teach asana in prisons, or yoga nidra to veterans, or meditation to kids, or pranayama practices to those struggling with anxiety disorders or addiction, you are part of the yoga community making change and working for the healing of the world.

The Hard & The Soft’s 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training program is open to all students who sincerely wish to explore the foundations of the 8-limbed path of classical yoga and make a difference in the world, starting from within. Get started today by finding a training near you, and applying to the program.

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About Yoga in ME

Yoga in ME is located in Eliot, Maine, a Southern Maine community 10 minutes from Portsmouth New Hampshire, about 1 hour from Portland,ME and Manchester, NH,  and 90 minutes from Boston, MA.

Yoga in ME is a family affair. Mother and daughter, Nancy and Lydia Garnhart, first opened the doors of Yoga in ME in 2013 with lots of support and help from the rest of our family.

When you walk in the doors of Yoga in ME, you will feel the love that’s gone into creating this healing space.

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