AmarJyothi 

(Bonnie Pariser)

RYT-500, E-RYT-500, SYT

 

AmarJyothi took her first yoga class as a gym requirement at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC where she studied Fashion Design in 1985. A field trip to The Sivananda Ashram on 24th street, where her gym teacher studied, sealed her interest in the practice. It was at this Ashram that AmarJyothi met her future karate teacher, and delved into that discipline for the next 10 years. Though a regular yoga practice took a back seat as she studied to earn her second-degree black belt, it never left her heart. “I incorporated much of the breath work and conscious movement techniques that I learned in yoga into my karate practice and teaching.” AmarJyothi had studied Tai Chi several years before; so the mixture of soft and hard and consciousness in motion were not new concepts.

AmarJyothi moved to the Delaware Valley region in 1996 where she met Parvathi Nanda Nath Saraswati.   The whole concept of how the physical aspects of yoga were intertwined with the spiritual aspects became clear thru her continuing studies with Parvathi.  She began teaching Yoga in 1998 and has taught in the Frenchtown area since 1999.  AmarJyothi has been interested from a young age in finding out how the body moved, and what the implications of restricted movement was.  Through her work with Parvathi and Mukunda Stiles her investigation of how the body stores emotions, trauma and joy  went on to a deeper level.  AmarJyothi's teaching combines precision, playfulness, and down to earth philosophy, all extracted from the ancient lineage of her teachers and her own insights as a mother, student, teacher, and practioner .