Life of Wellness Institute

About Us

At the heart of everything we do is a diverse and welcoming community of humans who have been touched by the experience of being human.

The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’, meaning ‘to join’ or “to yoke” or ‘to unite’. So what does that mean, and what are we uniting? Patanjali, who wrote the Yoga Sutras, described yoga as “the cessation of the modification of the mind”. To understand what he means by “modification of the mind” we look to Kleshas, which teaches us it is the cloudy mental states of the mind that impact our ability to be with our experiences as they are and as they are not. There are five Kleshas; Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (egoism), Raga (attachment), Dvesa (aversion or hatred), and Abinivesah (clinging to life or fear of death). These illusions create our Avidya, which translates to ignorance, misconceptions, misunderstandings, and incorrect knowledge.

Common places to discover our Avidya is in our fears, who we believe ourselves to be, what we believe we are and are not capable of. It is these illusions, the lens we see ourselves, and the world around us that create our suffering, preventing us from experiencing Turiya, the transcendental state of an enlightened self.

As Patanjali said, yoga is a lifestyle to end the illusions in our minds that prevent us from being in union with our true selves.

And this is where our mission begins. “Compassionately Embracing Our True Selves as We Navigate All of Life’s Experiences thorugh Yoga”