Karma Yoga Center — Attraction in Denver

Karma yoga has ALL THE EXCELLENT teachers and a unique, lovely space. Let me share my latest experience with one of the Karma yoga teachers, Santosh Powell, with the hopes that it will be useful for you if you are searching for a practice. I have been doing yoga as a committed but always as a beginner for the last 30 years now. Of course, I like yoga; I was sold for the mental and physical health benefits years ago! I run and all the stretches I do, I have learned in yoga. However, I actually never deeply enjoyed yoga throughout a whole full session at a studio (hence the never-ending beginner's badge). Especially now...after an x-ray that showed a broken vertebra (spondylolisthesis) two years ago after an intense season of skiing. Yoga hurt, so I gave it up! Then.. a couple of months ago, I decided to give yoga another chance, it popped into my consciousness. Now, Imagine this scene from Santosh's class: I, the committed beginner, and next to me a yoga teacher-student doing the same asana. Santosh gives such clear, and succinct (unlike my review here) instructions that I love what I am doing without pain, at my level and it feels so good. And the practitioner next to me is on her two hands, uplifted her whole body, stretched parallel to the floor, basically her hands are carrying her whole body with an impossible center of gravity, yet she does it. The interesting point here, both of us are content! Santosh's "eclectic yet person-specific" Zen-koan like instructions cannot be explained with good command of the language or years of practice, he connects at a different level... that.. please I am not going to use spiritual obscurity to explain how he does it. Santosh is an amazing teacher; he does all the poses himself and you can hear if he loves them, and he extends his body with you and the right way for you. How does Santosh know how to help me manipulate my own body with a broken vertebra better than I do and at the same time instruct a pretzel-level person? Yup, his presence is a cloud that wraps the room. Another aspect of his teachings; you know the yoga teacher, (not unlike a good-intentioned mediocre therapist), that spews jargons about spiritual life (which in its TRUE essence go hand in hand with yoga practices;  opening your heart, relaxing petrified body parts, mind-body connection), induces mild twitch on my part, due to the frequently used template-like-explanations, memorized feel-good, but hollow words. Of course yoga opens up your heart, yes 'The body keeps the score" of traumas, and the path to liberation goes thru opening up your body... However, pseudo-knowledge transmission to people around is akin to showing or looking at water from a photograph when you are so thirsty. Sure lovely, yet doesn't quench the thirst and it does not transmit the knowledge. Every WORD Santosh speaks comes from a place of total compassion of KNOWING and a place of true experience with zero ego in the mix. As a consequence, when he is talking about a pose and associate it with your heart, you HEAR it...Last but not least, for the first time in my 30-year yoga journey, I want to learn yoga more, because I now love it in the moment, here and now. Love, Beyhan T Maybach (Yin yang to...

I went to karma yoga today with my room mates. I previously bought a 20 pack at thier 50% off price SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE I was told that my two room mates could share in the pack. I was told a note would be attached to my profile with the names of my roommates. We were able to share in the pack the previous time we went. Today however, the owner Katrina Gustafson. was at the counter and said that there was no sharing unless it’s among family members. I would not have bought this 20 pack if I couldn’t share it. “Family only!” Katrina Gustafson said. I would not have bought this pack if I couldn’t share it. 50% discount or not. I don’t have any family for 2000 miles. They are my roommates, but emotionally they are my family. Regardless, I would not have bought this pack if they could not come with to share. Why was I told they could share? Why were they able to share the previous time? I asked for a refund. “We don’t do refunds on 50% off packs.” Now I don’t know what to do. The lady killed my good vibe. Now I can’t do yoga with the people I love cause I guess sharing...

I love love love Karma Yoga Center! All of the yoga instructors are fantastic, encouraging, and devoted to helping their students both spiritually and in their yoga practice. They provide many different types of yoga so you can try a variety and mix up your practice. I am particularly fond of Kundalini yoga, and this is one of the only studios in Denver that offers it. I also really enjoy the early morning 6:15 a.m. class to get my day started off right. Karma offers a lot of packages so you can make regular practice affordable, and they also offer some free classes to the community, which shows me that they are concerned more with advancing yoga than just making money. I can't thank the staff and instructors at Karma Yoga...